The current housing crisis is yet to focus properly on those who do not qualify for social housing but cannot compete in the private market. 

There is a growing group of people becoming almost invisible in Australia’s housing debate. They are not sleeping rough. Many would not qualify for crisis accommodation. They are working, studying, raising children or piecing their lives back together after a relationship breakdown, an illness, or a rent increase they could not absorb.

But they are stuck. They earn too much to qualify for social housing. At the same time, they do not earn nearly enough to compete in the private rental market.

This is the missing middle that reveals the widening gap between social housing eligibility and private rental affordability. And that gap is no longer a crack in the system. It is becoming one of the defining housing failures of our time.

For decades, Australia’s housing system rested on a quiet assumption: people who do not qualify for social housing will find something in the private market. That assumption has broken down.

In many communities, particularly regional ones, private rents have risen faster than wages. Vacancy rates are tight. People on modest incomes compete against dozens of applicants with stronger histories and higher pay. The problem, for most of them, is not attitude or........

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