The ACT Disability Directed Advocacy Caucus (Advocacy for Inclusion, Women with Disabilities ACT and ACT Down Syndrome and Intellectual Disability) have made a submission supporting the inclusion of the right to adequate housing in the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT). Enshrining the right to adequate housing should:
- Reframe housing decisions and improve accountability — requiring government to consider housing as a human right within legislation, policy development and service delivery across the ACT government.
- Strengthen protections for those disproportionately impacted by the housing crisis — including people with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, children at risk of harm, victim-survivors of domestic and
- family violence, young people exiting care, people on low incomes, and those in crisis accommodation, student housing, or insecure rentals.
- Unify and reinforce existing ACT law and policy — while current ACT policy and legislation protect some aspects of a right to adequate housing, they do not enshrine the right itself. This Bill provides a unified legal foundation that
- strengthens and connects existing commitments.
- Improve outcomes and reduce system costs — the progressive realisation of the right to housing will oblige governments to take deliberate, concrete steps toward fully realising this right and improving housing outcomes. Improved
- housing outcomes are in turn linked to better health, education, and social outcomes, and reduced demand on the healthcare and justice systems.
Read the submission here: