Australians shouldn’t have to navigate a broken housing system just to put a roof over their heads. Yet millions of people are struggling with housing affordability, rental rights, and issues such as domestic violence that can lead to homelessness.

The Everybody’s Home campaign brings together over 500 organisations to help build a more equitable housing system, which includes advocating for more government investment in social and affordable housing.

“Over the past decade, housing and homelessness advocacy has largely focussed on policy development and insider lobbying but has failed to build the public case and public support for the need for government to invest in social housing,” says Everybody’s Home National Spokesperson Kate Colvin.

Australian government expenditure on social housing has fallen from 4.8% in 2011 to 4.2% in 2016. Meanwhile rents in the private market have increased by 6.6% over the past year, making it harder for low income households to find an affordable home.

The need for change is clear, but growing the campaign to this scale wouldn’t have been possible without employing a campaign coordinator. This critical role (which was funded by the William Buckland Foundation) has boosted the campaigns ability to connect with and coordinate new organisational supporters, grow and engage the individual supporter base, and develop stories for the media.

In the 18 months since The William Buckland Foundation supported the campaign, it has increased the number of supporter organisations by 20% and boosted their involvement in activities connecting with the public.

The funding meets one of Equity Trustees’ key goals: to encourage innovative ways of collaborating around a central issue, which then influences positive policy and government outcomes.

The campaign has also significantly increased its media footprint. Having a coordinator enabled it to develop and resource more story ideas, doubling media coverage. These changes strengthened its specific campaigns, such as putting the need for social housing on the agenda of the new National Plan on Women’s Safety.

The campaign brought together more than 240 organisations who signed its joint statement calling for a commitment to safe and affordable social housing. The statement gained significant media attention, including on ABC RN Breakfast on the morning of the Safety Summit.