Children’s Housing Instability: Evidence from the Australian Children’s Housing Survey

There is limited literature in Australia detailing the effect of rental increases and housing (in)stability on the mental and physical health of children. One likely cause of this gap is scepticism about children’s cognitive capabilities in being reliable sources for research purposes and perception that their awareness of housing stress and financial hardship is limited.

This report summarises the evidence linking housing to children’s physical and mental health given children’s established awareness of domestic life, including things often deemed outside of their realm like housing pressures. This existing evidence is supplemented by data recently collected from South Australian households with children (the ACHS-SA), providing novel and up-to-date insight into the housing circumstances of South Australian children.

This report was completed by Peschk Mezek-Tatler as part of an undergraduate internship at the Australian Centre for Housing Research (University of Adelaide).