From Housing Readiness to Housing Rights: Making the Case for Australia’s Housing First for Youth Policy
Last week, we published a blog about how financial pressures are impacting the lives of young Australians. This plays out in various ways, one of which is by creating barriers for young people to accessing secure and affordable housing. Below Kylie Smith, Operations Manager of MCM Housing and Master of Public Policy graduate from RMIT, makes the case for Australia’s Housing First for Youth Policy, emphasising the importance of housing ‘rights’ over housing ‘readiness’.
For many young people in Australia today, finding secure and affordable housing is becoming increasingly difficult. Without somewhere stable to live, it becomes harder to participate in education, work, community life, and civic activities. In response, Housing First for Youth (HF4Y) is emerging as a significant policy approach that treats housing as a right and a prerequisite for participation and wellbeing rather than an outcome to be earned.
The need for HF4Y becomes clearer when viewed against broader changes in Australia's housing system. Housing is becoming less affordable, less secure and harder to access, particularly for younger generations. The traditional pathway from the family home to renting and eventually home ownership is becoming increasingly uncertain.
HF4Y offers an alternative to traditional housing support models for young people. Rather than treating housing as something that follows behavioural change, program participation, or demonstrated independence, HF4Y starts from the position that housing is a right and a foundation for wellbeing. Instead of requiring a young person to prove they are "ready" for housing, HF4Y provides housing first. Then it offers support to help them remain housed, continue education, find employment, and build community connections. This shifts attention away from perceived individual deficits and towards the structural factors that drive youth homelessness, including housing scarcity, unaffordability, income insecurity, and discrimination.
For many young people, renting is becoming a long-term reality, but without the security that ongoing housing should provide. Housing insecurity involves more than the risk of homelessness. It can mean living with uncertainty, limited choice, and reduced control over daily life. Access to other types of housing, such as social housing, is also constrained. The available stock is small relative to demand, and young people face significant barriers to long-term affordable housing. As publicly provided housing declines, responsibility for securing a place to live is increasingly shifted onto individuals. For young people, navigating this already difficult market presents challenges.
Furthermore, as investor-led housing markets expand, housing is increasingly viewed as a financial asset and a tool for building wealth rather than simply a place to live. This means that decisions about housing are often shaped by investment returns and property values When housing is treated as an asset to produce profit, rather than as a place to call home, the effects are acutely felt by those who are most marginalised within the housing market and this includes young people. The result is that young people are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain affordable and secure homes in the communities where they study and work.
These trends raise a fundamental question: should housing be treated as a commodity, or as essential social infrastructure that enables people to participate in society? For example, a young person may avoid enrolling in a TAFE course because they do not know where they will be living in three months or turn down work opportunities because an unexpected rent increase forces them to move further away.
Researchers describe this as the emergence of a new “housing precariat” - a growing group of young people who work, study, and contribute to society but remain vulnerable to housing instability. A young person may be employed, studying, and paying rent on time, yet still be one unexpected expense, job loss, or rent increase away from needing emergency housing assistance. This challenges us to rethink housing not just as a private asset, but as a form of social infrastructure that underpins dignity, participation, and the ability to exercise rights.
Viewing housing as social infrastructure rather than a commodity also raises important questions about how young people access housing support. As both private rental housing and social housing become harder to access, many young people find themselves relying on homelessness and welfare services for assistance. Rather than receiving help to secure permanent housing, they may be required to move between temporary accommodation options, repeatedly explain their circumstances to different services, or demonstrate ongoing need before support is provided.
Young people are often the first to be locked out of housing markets, most exposed to insecure employment, and the least likely to accumulate wealth. Youth homelessness is therefore not simply a youth issue; it is an early warning sign of broader failures in the housing system. A stable home provides a place to study, maintain employment, attend appointments, build relationships and plan one’s future. HF4Y recognises that these forms of participation are difficult to achieve when housing itself is uncertain. As housing insecurity grows among young Australians, the challenge is not simply to make young people ready for housing, but to ensure housing systems recognise their right to it.
Content Moderator: Alexa Ridgway
Photo by Tierra Malorca on Unsplash.