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Ahead of the 2025 Federal Election, we’re calling on all candidates and parties to invest in safe and affordable housing, support young people, and end poverty and homelessness in Australia. To help build a fair future for all, here are our three priority areas at the 2025 Federal Election.

1. Everyone has a safe and affordable home where they can thrive

In Australia, more than 122,000 people experience homelessness on any given night.¹ In recent years, the number of Australians who are homeless or at risk of homelessness has also increased by 63% between 2016 and 2022.2 Over the past year, Mission Australia's frontline teams saw a 19% increase in demand in people seeking support from our homelessness services.³

To address the growing homelessness crisis, the government should focus on investment into social and affordable housing, and homelessness prevention and early intervention. This ensures that everyone has a home and that homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring.

We’re calling on the government to implement the following measures:

- Build more social and affordable housing: Significantly boost the number of social and affordable homes to 10% of all housing stock to meet the need in the community.
Additionally, the government should mandate a portion of affordable homes in all new large-scale apartment developments across Australia.
- Create a $500 million Prevention Transformation Fund: This would shift the homelessness system from its current crisis-driven approach, towards a system that actively prevents homelessness from occurring in the first place.

Learn more about how the government can address the homelessness emergency in Australia.

Download factsheet

2. Boost assistance so no one lives in poverty:

No one in Australia should be without a safe home or live in poverty. To create a more equitable tomorrow, we urge the government to take the following actions:

• Increase support payments: Raise the rate of Jobseeker and other income support payments to at least $82 a day so everyone can keep a roof over their head and food on the table. We also call on the government to increase financial payments through Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 60% and ensure that it remains an effective payment for those struggling to pay rent.
• End Child Poverty: Legislate an end to child poverty and make children a priority in the Measuring What Matters national wellbeing framework to drive community action.

Preventative measures and early intervention benefit not only people in need but support flourishing communities and greater economic participation and resilience.” - Sharon Callister, Mission Australia. 

3. Support for young people facing adversity: 

Young people are overrepresented in the homeless population, making up almost a quarter of all homeless people.⁴ In 2023-24, 53,000 young people sought support from homelessness services like ours.

At Mission Australia, we know the severe impact that homelessness can have on young people and their future.

Ahead of the 2025 Federal Election, we’re calling on the government to provide critical intervention and respond to the current homelessness emergency through the following policies:

• Additional funding: Provide funding for 15,000 youth tenancies across Australia each year to address the need for medium to long-tern housing. Further funding is also required for young people to recover from alcohol and other drugs misuse, particularly residential services and aftercare supports.
• Invest in Youth Foyers: Building Youth Foyers provides vital housing, education and employment opportunities for young people. We’re calling on an additional investment of $184 million to construct ten 40-unit Fund services over the next three years.

Learn more about how the government can help address youth homelessness.

Download factsheet

¹ABS Census of Population and Housing: Estimating Homelessness, 2021
²Report on Government Services 2024 Housing and Homelessness, Productivity Commission
³Mission Australia Homelessness Impact Report, 2024
⁴Specialist Homelessness Services Annual Report, AIHW, 2023-24