The housing crisis makes everything worse

Where and how we live affects almost every aspect of our lives. When there is too little housing and the prices of homes skyrocket, there are obvious consequences like homelessness and housing stress. But the housing crisis directly affects several other major issues too, like employment, health, inequality, climate change, and declining fertility rates.

Employment

You may have noticed the recent flurry of stories in the news about regional Australia suffering labour shortages. Though there are people with the skills and willingness to fill these jobs, there is simply nowhere for them to live. The supply of rental properties has dried up, and homes to buy are prohibitively expensive. Staff shortages have forced businesses to reduce operating hours, which in turn affects the overall economy of our regions.

Housing shortage likewise affects employment opportunities in cities. The story of the little guy moving to the big city for a better life is a well-worn cliché, but cities tend to be highly productive places and sites of innovation. Historically, people of all income brackets have been able to move to cities to for better opportunities.

But when housing in our most productive places is too scarce and too expensive, it limits who can participate. People will, quite reasonably, turn down a better-paid job more suited to their skills if they cannot afford to live where that job is based.

The end result is that we all lose. By stopping people from going where they could be most productive, we kneecap our own economy and make ourselves poorer. We also stifle innovation, which happens when people mix and share ideas – it's why Pixar's offices are famously designed to encourage interdepartmental interaction. We will never know how many innovations we have missed out on because people with complementary skills and knowledge didn't have the opportunity to mix.

Health

Housing plays an important role in human health. When there isn't enough housing to go around, people are forced into unsafe situations: overcrowding, which increases transmission and mortality of infectious diseases; living in dwellings unfit for human habitation; having to choose between homelessness or staying in a domestic abuse situation.

But the link between housing and health isn't just a matter of individual houses and households. The shape of our neighbourhoods affects health as well.

The policies that restrict housing supply create an urban environment that is sparsely populated with strictly separated land uses. This means that people rely on cars to get around, rather than active transport such as walking and cycling. This is in turn leads to increased risk factors for chronic disease such as obesity and hypertension.

Commuting itself is bad for our health. It causes back and neck aches, joint problems, poor sleep, and higher blood pressure overtime. It increases stress and reduces life and job satisfaction; people who commute more than two hours a day are more likely to quit or lose their job within a year.

Our housing shortage affects our mental health too. An undersupply of housing places enormous stress on people to both find a home and then keep up with the mortgage or rent. Furthermore, studies have found that living in housing disadvantage can cause mental illness even decades after a person's situation improves.

Scarcity of housing forces important support networks such as family and friends to disperse in the search for affordable homes. We have to travel further to visit existing relationships (provided you have access to transport and travel restrictions don't apply), while our car-dependency reduces opportunities for forming new ones. All this increases social isolation and loneliness.

Inequality

Housing scarcity is making Australian society more unequal. Houses, not wages, are the driving force behind wealth inequality in Australia.