Young Australians are hit especially hard at this intersection. According to Mission Australia’s 2024 Youth Survey, a record 56 per cent of 15 to 19-year-olds named cost-of-living (including housing) as their top concern, up from 25 per cent two years ago. Housing affordability has become a daily worry: many say they fear never owning a home, or even staying housed.
Housing experts say these stresses aggravate mental illness. Melbourne University’s Professor Rebecca Bentley found in 2011 that low- to middle-income people spending over 30 per cent of their income on rent or mortgage had significantly higher rates of anxiety and depression. Recent studies of young Australians echo this: those who had to move frequently or live with family for affordability reasons were much more likely to report poor mental health.
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The effect is not just material but psychological. Dr Priya Kunjan of RMIT’s Urban Research Centre says “the ability to dwell securely really is the bedrock of the rest of our lives”, when people lack control of their housing, their sense of stability and self-worth erodes. Repeated rental rejections can instil a “learned helplessness,” according to clinical psychologist Gene Hodgins: when every application is turned down, people may wonder “why keep on trying…?” and slip into depression and anxiety.
Evidence from thousands of affected Australians confirms this. A survey by housing campaign Everybody’s Home found 66 per cent of renters said the accommodation crisis was harming their mental health, and an even higher proportion reported constant stress and fear about housing. Meanwhile, in crisis accommodations, mental health issues are the norm: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data show roughly one-third of clients using specialist homelessness services report a current mental illness, and this number keeps climbing (over 85,000 people, or about 31 per cent) in 2022–23.
In short, the housing crunch is not only leaving more people without homes, it is worsening a national mental health emergency. The convergence of housing pain and mental health decline is a clarion call to the new Australian government. The evidence is clear that half-measures won’t suffice. Experts agree the solution must be comprehensive and sustained and warn that without a decisive policy response, the country faces a long-term social crisis: thousands more people losing homes, more suicides and illnesses, and a future generation scarred by trauma.
Australia’s new federal government has a mandate and a moral duty to act now. The data leaves no doubt: investing in housing stability is investing in the nation’s mental health, and in Australia’s future.
Dr Ehsan Noroozinejad is a senior researcher at WSU’s Urban Transformations Research Centre, where he specialises in smart resilient construction and infrastructure.
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