Let’s make access to adequate housing a human right

Dr Sarah Moulds, Director Rights Resourec Network SA

On Monday 22 September more than 50 South Australians formed part of a workshop to discuss a simple but powerful idea: that everyone deserves a safe, secure, and affordable place to call home. The message from the hosts of the workshop - Rights Resource Network SA, Shelter SA, and Australian Lawyers for Human Rights - was clear: housing is not just a commodity, but a fundamental human right.

This is not a radical notion. It’s an idea that’s gaining momentum across Australia, as states and territories grapple with rising homelessness and housing insecurity and enact specific laws to protect and promote fundamental human rights.

Yet, as the Parliament’s Social Development Committee recently reported, “[o]ver the past few decades South Australia’s rights-based agenda has diminished and, as pointed out to the Committee, it is now an ‘outlier’ where human rights are concerned.”

Workshop participants heard how enshrining a human right to adequate housing in South Australian legislation – like the law recently passed in the Australian Capital Territory - would be an aspirational step towards reducing and eliminating homelessness, and would create an imperative for government, parliament and tribunals to approach decision-making with the dignity of people at the centre.

Monday’s workshop included participants from all walks of life —community leaders, service providers, legal experts, union representatives, church groups, social workers, academics, and concerned citizens— who share the view that the housing crisis in South Australia needs a new response.  There was an urgency to the discussion given the seriously large and growing number of children, families and other vulnerable groups who are unable to access secure, safe or adequate housing – and whose voices are being obscured or ignored in ‘supply’ orientated market based solutions to this very human crisis.

Workshop participants heard how market-pricing concepts of ‘affordable housing’, new build targets and even improved protections for renters remain unable to restore dignity to those facing homelessness or insecure housing right now.  Participants discussed impact of the current absence of a legal requirement for landlords, private service providers or government departments to put dignity at the heart of their decision making, particularly when interacting with groups most vulnerable to homelessness and housing insecurity, such as children leaving foster care, families fleeing violence and people on fixed incomes. 

Under international law, the right to be adequately housed means not having to worry about being evicted or having your home taken away. It means living somewhere that is in keeping with your culture, and having access to appropriate services, schools, and employment. By taking a human rights approach to housing, our State can save families and whole communities from long-term disruption and harm. It can pursue its economic and social policy goals, whilst acknowledging the inherent dignity of the people it governs and serves. Legislating a right to adequate housing could also enhance and secure recently announced measures to develop Aboriginal community-controlled responses to acute housing needs.

Other states and territories have shown us the way. The ACT, Victoria, and Queensland have all enacted Human Rights laws that can evolve, alongside community expectations, to better protect people as they live their everyday lives and face emergent challenges. The ACT is first Australian jurisdiction to explicitly enshrine the right to adequate housing in human rights legislation, and a similar proposal is currently before the Victorian Parliament.

Following a detailed inquiry that attracted more than 350 submissions, our own Parliament’s Social Development Committee has unanimously recommended that South Australia take steps to introduce a Human Rights Act to consolidate and enhance our existing rights-orientated laws, and this should include the right to adequate housing.  The legal detail, policy benefits and cost savings of such an approach have all be carefully documented in the Social Development Committee’s 159-page report.  

The community is calling for action. Workshop participants want action.  They want South Australia to shine again—to lead the country on fairness, equity, and social justice through our own Human Rights Act, with housing at its heart.

Show your support for a Human Rights Act for SA here!