Rental-Insights-A-COVID-19-Collection - Flipbook - Page 18
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RENTAL INSIGHTS:
HOUSEHOLDS
UNDER STRAIN
HOUSEHOLDS UNDER STRAIN
Amy Clair
University of Essex
Housing conditions and
security for renters during
lockdown: worse for
households
with children
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Key findings
Why is it important?
Only 34 per cent of
renters reported living in
a home with no housing
quality issues, down
to 29 per cent among
households containing
dependent children.
Households with children
were also more likely
to report multiple
housing problems.
The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns
have highlighted the importance of
housing to health, emphasising the
home as a safe space. However, the
extent to which this is true depends
on the quality and security of the home.
Poor quality housing has been linked to
numerous physical and mental health
conditions. While insecure housing
has been shown to affect parenting
behaviours, as well as physical and
mental health. Given the importance
of housing conditions and security in
more ordinary times, understanding
their impact during the pandemic
and lockdown is vitally important.
Similarly, nearly 8 per cent of
households with children were served
an eviction notice following the
outbreak of the pandemic in Australia,
twice the number of households without
children. Poor quality and insecure
housing is detrimental to health at all
times, but this impact is likely to have
been greater during the COVID-19
pandemic due to the increased
importance of, and amount of time
spent in, the home during lockdown.
Who is most affected?
The most common housing problems
reported in the Australian Rental
Housing Conditions Survey are cracks
in the walls and floors, plumbing issues,
and mould.
All these issues were more common
among households with children, and
most (53%) households with dependent
children reported multiple housing
problems. As well as reporting a greater
number of issues, households with
children are also more likely to report
more significant problems. Thirty-five
per cent of households with children
had at least one issue requiring urgent
repair, compared to 25 per cent of other
households.
Close to twice as many households
with children received eviction notices
compared to households without
children. Of those who received an
eviction notice, over 60 per cent of
households with children present were
evicted, compared to 52 per cent of
other households. There is an overlap
between housing problems and the
likelihood of receiving an eviction
notice—just 2.5 per cent of households
reporting no housing problems had
received an eviction notice compared
to over 9 per cent of households with
3 or more problems, rising to nearly
12 per cent for households with
children where the property has
3 or more problems.
Further evidence of the importance of
housing to the impact of the pandemic
is found by exploring reported changes.
Asked if they had experienced higher
levels of anxiety or worry as a result
of the pandemic, under 37 per cent
of people in homes with no problems
responded ‘yes’, compared to over 60
per cent of people in homes with 7 or
more problems. Similarly, under 14 per
cent of people in homes with no issues
reported difficulties in their personal
relationships compared to nearly half
of those in homes with 9 problems.
These relationships are linear, with
more housing problems leading to
a higher likelihood of reporting
personal issues.