Homeless woman
Image: Andreea Popa/Unsplash

The federal government is claiming its HomeBuilder grants as a roaring success. More than 75,000 people have applied for the cash, mostly to build new homes, and the government estimates hundreds of thousands of tradies have been kept in work during the pandemic as a result.

The program is expected to cost around $2 billion and support $18 billion worth of residential construction projects.

But a new report from the Productivity Commission has found that, across the last decade, no progress has been made in reducing the number of people suffering from rental stress. Women aged over 55 are the fastest-growing cohort of homeless Australians, while nearly half a million women aged over 45 are at risk of homelessness.