高清福利片

Sydney has long been known for its 鈥渓atte line鈥�, an invisible thread of socioeconomic division running from the International Airport out to Paramatta, separating blue鈥慶ollar and white鈥慶ollar workers. Over the course of her career, Professor Nicole Gurran (BA 鈥�95, MURP 鈥�97, PhD 鈥�02, GradCertEdStudies 鈥�03) has seen how government action and inaction on housing policy have continued to reinforce this divide.

鈥淚n effect, high鈥慽ncome earners live behind an invisible 鈥榥eighbourhood exclusion barrier鈥� that displaces middle- and low鈥慽ncome renters,鈥� she says. According to research conducted by Nicole along with Associate Professor Somwrita Sarkar (PhD 鈥�09, GradCertEdStudies 鈥�18) and Rashi Shrivastava (MMgt 鈥�18), this pattern is replicated in most Australian capital cities. 鈥淭he most advantaged households benefit from their high access to employment opportunities,鈥� Nicole says.

鈥淭his is reflected in high house prices and rents in those neighbourhoods. And that, in turn, reinforces patterns of household wealth, poverty and spatial segregation.鈥� Now, with 13 rate rises in the past 15 months and rental affordability at a 17鈥憏ear low , people on both sides of the latte line are feeling the squeeze. This situation is only serving to further entrench existing divisions and, according to Nicole, the proposal to simply continue building more homes does little to address the problem.

鈥淚n a good five years, 1.2 million homes should be business as usual,鈥� she says, referring to the federal government鈥檚 proposed housing target. 鈥淲e delivered close to that in the lead鈥憉p to the COVID鈥�19 pandemic, which was followed by border closures and reversal of population growth. And housing prices continued to rise. Which tells us that even when we meet very ambitious housing supply targets, we don鈥檛 magically produce an affordable outcome.鈥�

How did we get here?

As politicians, policymakers and thought leaders propose, debate, knock back, reshape and reintroduce potential solutions to the housing crisis, the continued pressure on everyday renters and homeowners has madepublic discourse feel increasingly tense. That tension is understandable, says former Dean of the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, Professor Robyn Dowling (BEc (Hons) 鈥�88), because Australian perceptions of housing are defined by our aspirations for home ownership and our affinity for the detached house.

鈥淭he place that provides security, a sense of belonging, of comfort, needs to be our 鈥榦wned鈥� home,鈥� she says. 鈥淎ustralia is also quite distinctive in that we haven鈥檛 historically had high鈥慸ensity family living and therefore, we don鈥檛 see it as 鈥榟ome鈥�. We connect home with the detached house.鈥� This idea means that Australians often baulk at potential solutions that might involve increasing housing density. Unpicking an attitude that is so embedded in our national psyche is incredibly difficult, but for the school鈥檚 Head of Urbanism, Associate Professor Dallas Rogers, it is the key to reshaping the future. 聽

聽鈥淲e invented this idea that land and individual property rights go together,鈥� he says, citing colonial expansion as the starting point for our conceptions of 鈥榩rivate property鈥�. Once that property becomes 鈥榩rivate鈥�, he says, we can track what happens to it 鈥� how we apply monetary value to land, assign ownership and include or exclude different social groups. It鈥檚 a useful thought exercise, according to Dallas, because it shows how our ideas about housing are social products which change over time and can be changed for the better. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a tough conversation to have,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 recalibrate overnight. But we can ask the question, 鈥榃hat happens if we don鈥檛 diversify the way we think about housing?鈥� And that鈥檚 a productive change.鈥�

What are we doing?

As the housing crisis continues to worsen, Nicole has found herself asking how the national discussion of the housing crisis would change if we treated it with the sense of urgency we afford other crises. In 2024, Everybody鈥檚 Home, a coalition of housing, homelessness and welfare organisations, announced the first People鈥檚 Commission into the housing crisis. It provided an opportunity for individuals and organisations across Australia to contribute to the national conversation about the housing crisis and suggest real鈥憌orld solutions. The coalition approached Nicole to serve as independent Co鈥慍ommissioner, alongside former Federal Labor senator the Honourable Doug Cameron.

鈥淚 was honoured to be invited to do it,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 thought it was overdue that we really centred on the people who are living through this crisis 鈥� not just their voices and experiences, but also their knowledge of what could be done to reform the system.鈥�

Over three days, submissions to the commission showed the human face of poor policy outcomes 鈥� from essential workers priced out of the housing market to older women facing homelessness following divorce. It was a powerful experience for Nicole.

聽鈥淚鈥檝e certainly known the data and written about it, but there鈥檚 nothing like actually hearing the emotion in people鈥檚 voices and seeing the trauma the housing crisis is inflicting on them to make you despair at the state of public policy in Australia,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut the good thing is, things can be done.鈥�

The solution, Nicole says, is sustained investment in social and affordable housing supply. Affordable housing in particular is something that Nicole calls a 鈥渘o鈥慴rainer鈥�, requiring little in the way of government subsidy. It just requires a commitment to enforcing the policy. 鈥淚 think debate about housing tends to get obscured by these rehearsed statements, like, 鈥極h it鈥檚 very complex,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way of making people feel as though this problem is something that we couldn鈥檛 possibly understand.鈥�

The evidence, according to Nicole, points to simple causes 鈥� disinvestment in social housing over 30 years, investment in an unfair tax system which has overinflated the price of existing properties, and not meeting supply demands. She says the solutions are also simple. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to unwind those things, once we acknowledge the problem. National leadership is needed to restore investment to social housing, fix the unfair and inefficient tax settings that fuel demand without delivering new supply, and ensure adequate rental subsidies and protections so that tenants in the private sector can access secure and decent homes.

鈥淲e need to think about housing not as investing in real estate, but rather as investing in community. We need both immediate interventions and a commitment to long鈥憈erm systemic change.鈥澛�

Is mould damaging your home and your health?

Mould might not be the first thing you think of in a housing crisis, but if left untreated it can have dire implications for both the life of building materials and our physical health. Professor Arianna Brambilla (GradCertEdStudies 鈥�23) explainsthat the financial burden in either scenario can run into the millions.

When housing is in short supply, says Arianna, there is more chance people will be cornered into a living situation that could be detrimental to their health.

鈥淔or low鈥慽ncome populations, there isn鈥檛 the luxury to say, 鈥楴o, this house is not providing a healthy environment for me,鈥欌�� she says.

There is currently no standardised test for mould in Australia. Arianna and her colleagues are collecting data on how and where mould is growing across the country, in the hopes of allowing homeowners and policymakers to make earlier risk assessments.

鈥淚f mould is growing under the carpet, you don鈥檛 see it until you see it,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e want that awareness to come a little earlier, [so] you can begin moving from remediation to prediction. We can start to detect mould before it鈥檚 visible."

Is the algorithm preventing you from finding a home?

Online housing application platforms have been revolutionary for renters. Not only is the application process easier but, according to Dr Sophia Maalsen (PhD 鈥�14, GradCertEdStudies 鈥�23), it鈥檚 given people the ability to create more safe and sustainable households by connecting with like鈥憁inded potential flatmates. But those same platforms are also used by real estate agents and landlords to collect massive amounts of data 鈥� with murky implications for tenants.

鈥淲e know some platforms make an algorithmic decision 鈥� if you put in a higher rent range, it might boost you higher up the rankings,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 impacting your chance of finding a home, but you鈥檙e unsure of how it鈥檚 making decisions.鈥�

This means platforms may be discriminating in ways we can鈥檛 see, based on the data we put into our profiles, and this has implications for our ability to find a place to live. With this in mind, Sophia and her collaborators have launched the Know Your Landlord app, a creative project that imagines a world where tenants can conduct the same background checks as landlords. The project aims to shift the perspective on data collection.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a hypothetical, to illustrate the power imbalance on these platforms,鈥� Sophia explains. 鈥淯ntil we can mandate there be less data collection, the project is a good reminder that we have some agency in this discussion.鈥�

Written by Alex Johnson for聽Sydney Alumni Magazine. Photography by Stefanie Zingsheim.