A new campaign calls for urgent funding boost to address growing crisis.

Housing charity Home in Place has launched an online campaign calling for a major increase in federal funding to help address the housing crisis.

Currently, the Australian Government allocates just 0.6% of its annual budget to housing.

Campaign spokesperson Martin Kennedy said a lack of federal investment over many years was one of the main reasons a growing share of middle Australia was being pushed into housing stress and homelessness.

“In the 50s and 60s governments built around 15% of all new homes. In the 70s and 80s they were still building 10% of all new homes. These days, they build almost none,” Mr Kennedy said.

“It may have taken several decades, but the catastrophic consequences of that policy shift are now in plain sight.

“Home ownership is now basically impossible for anyone without access to intergenerational wealth, rents have surged by around 50% in the last three years alone, and social housing’s share of total housing stock is at the lowest level on record.

“The result is that severe housing stress and even homelessness are now impacting middle income households as well as those on low incomes.

“The new faces of homelessness are everyday people from all parts of society. People who are doing everything they can to keep a roof over their head but finding the housing crisis makes it impossible.

“If we don’t deal with this issue, the fabric of Australian society is going to be destroyed.”

Despite the bleak outlook, the Australian Government still spends just 0.6% of its budget each year on housing. Home in Place is calling for this figure to be raised to at least two per cent.

Mr Kennedy said investment at this level would see the share of total housing stock built by the government return to around 10%.

“What we are calling for is simply a return to policies that have been proven to work,” he said.

“When the governments of the past wanted to increase home ownership, or give low-income people access to decent quality rentals at an affordable price, they didn’t rely on the private sector. They understood that they had to get involved in the business of building homes and offering them to the public at prices people could afford.

“There is no mystery to the current crisis. The real mystery is why, for all the handwringing about the demise of the Great Australian Dream, we continue to ignore the policies that made that dream possible in the first place.”

To learn more about the campaign, visit www.homeinplace.org/modern-homelessness