Overview
Mission Australia’s 2026-27 Federal Pre-Budget Submission presents evidence-based policy recommendations to address the urgent housing and homelessness crisis, youth disadvantage, and underfunded alcohol and other drug (AOD) services, underpinned by a shift toward structural reform—moving from crisis response to prevention, and ensuring equitable access to secure housing and tailored support services across Australia.
Summary of recommendations
Housing and homelessness
- Dedicate $500 million for a Homelessness Prevention Transformation Fund to commence in July 2026 and be delivered over 4 years
- Increase the maximum thresholds of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) by 60%
- Review the CRA program and state-based rental subsidy programs for people on low and moderate incomes struggling in private rentals
- Make a long-term commitment to annual rounds of the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), with an investment 4 times the current $10 billion to continually increase housing supply until it meets demand
- Match social and affordable housing with sustaining tenancy funding to provide appropriate wraparound supports to prevent people becoming homeless
- Provide incentive payments to State and Territory Governments to implement land use planning reforms to increase housing supply through densification of middle ring suburbs, and to ringfence a proportion of supply for low-income households
Youth homelessness
- Remove the youth housing penalty to equalise young tenants’ rents with those of older cohorts in line with recommendations in the Home Time Campaign’s pre-budget submission
- Extend the Reconnect program until 2032 and invest at least $100 million into expanding its geographic reach and capacity to target younger age cohorts and prevent youth homelessness
- Invest $184 million capital to construct ten 40-unit Youth Foyers over three years, including three First Nations-led Youth Foyers Fund new transitional units plus the necessary complementary support for 15,000 young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness across Australia each year
Alcohol and other drug (AOD) support for young people
- Immediately fund 12 months of Triple Care Farm (TCF) Knights Hill’s operational expenditure shortfall of $3.4 million from financial year 2027-28 to ensure Mission Australia can continue to support young people requiring residential treatment for AOD issues
Community services sector
- Fund the full cost of service delivery, including infrastructure, management and administration costs, and appropriate indexation
- Prioritise where appropriate the implementation of formal relational contracting to provide long-term stability and sustainability for complex human services and the people they serve