Legal Aid NSW says it has experienced a record 19 per cent increase in demand for housing-related legal help.
The spike, recorded in the service’s annual report for 2023-24, reveals that almost 4,500 people per year are trying to secure assistance for housing and tenancy issues.
Natalie Bradshaw is a Senior Solicitor at Legal Aid NSW and heads up their Housing and Homelessness specialist teams.
She says cost-of-living pressures are definitely flowing through, with increased demand for legal services.
“We’ve seen an increase in rents in recent years and a lot of people who were already struggling to find affordable housing have just felt that pressure in the NSW rental market,” says Bradshaw.
People are coming to Legal Aid with a range of concerns, either in private rental or social housing.
“[P]eople in the private rental market who are struggling to pay their rent and just wanting some advice about what they can do, in terms of keeping their housing or getting more time to try and find alternatives for their families,” says Bradshaw.
And they’re often reaching out for help for the first time. “We’re talking about people who have never really had to access legal services at Legal Aid before.”
Some people have to be turned away. “We do have limited resources and that means that we have to restrict eligibility for some of our ongoing services, to make sure that we’re helping the most vulnerable people,” says Bradshaw.
Recent law reform in the area of housing is expected to help but further changes could be needed, according to Legal Aid. “Definitely, the end of no grounds terminations will help people in the private rental market, just to create a more stable housing environment in NSW,” says Bradshaw.
“[W]e will continue work in that area, where we speak to government about finding that balance between consumer rights and protections for tenants, so that there’s a more stable tenancy and housing environment.”
Their goal is to help people avoid falling into homelessness, but Legal Aid doesn’t see much respite on the horizon.
“Given that so many people are paying such a high percentage of their incomes towards housing and in (a) rental crisis in particular, I can only imagine that … we’ll still see that demand for our services,” says Bradshaw.