Submission to the United Nations: COVID-19 and the right to housing in Australia

Covid-19 and the right to housing in Australia – focus on New South Wales.

The focus of this submission is on measures taken by the New South Wales government, with a limited introduction and overview of national responses and issues.

Throughout the pandemic people have become more acutely aware of the imbalanced nature of the renting system. Petitions calling for rents and mortgages across Australia to be reduced or waived entirely have attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures while a campaign of rent strikes attracted more than 16,000 sign-ons. Local campaigns attempting to prevent evictions of especially vulnerable people also received media attention. These actions, particularly at this scale, were unlikely to occur and speak to the level of distress the community felt and the lack of confidence in a negotiation process.