Australia is experiencing a housing disaster that risks turning into a social and economic catastrophe. It is a disaster because all four aspects of the system are extremely stressed and play havoc with the lives and aspirations of millions of people. Home ownership is beyond the reach of many households, even those with two good wages coming in, let alone those with one. Rents have skyrocketed and few affordable rentals are available for ordinary working families. Housing costs are so high as to lower living standards generally. The modern history of social housing is one of deliberate government under-investment, to the point where it is available only to those on income support and with desperate needs. In our land of plenty, homelessness is among the highest in the world and visible to all – a fact reported to our national shame in the international media.

This situation has been chronic and worsening for more than a generation. Without a different approach it will go on for at least another. The Australian housing disaster appears to be maturing into a new normal, which really would be a catastrophe.

This is no spider that has crept up on unsuspecting Australia in the dark. The housing disaster has happened in broad daylight, and it continues to do so predictably and avoidably under our moral watch. Writers such as Jim Kemeny and Peter Mares, as well as the UN Special Rapporteur Miloon Kathari, have sounded strong alarms along the way, complemented recently by the likes of Alan Kohler, Saul Eslake, Jessie Hohmann, and Chris Martin. Speaking as housing historians, finance journalists, taxation economists, and human rights experts, they give voice to a powerful message: the current design of the housing and taxation system puts profit before people and is not fit for its fundamental social purposes.