Addressing factors impacting mental health: financial stress and housing

At our recent Members' Policy Forum in Sydney, we asked lived experience advocate and peer worker Spencer Barberis what was driving the mental health challenges he was seeing every day in the people he supports in regional Australia. 

His answer was immediate: cost of living and housing. 

Spencer shared (with permission) the story of a woman he supports who had lived in the same rental property for 20 years. When the property was sold, she was forced to find somewhere new to live in one of the toughest rental markets Australia has seen. 

After months of uncertainty, she accepted the first property she could find. Between her and her son, who both rely on income support payments, around 40 per cent of their income now goes towards rent. The experience was stressful, exhausting and traumatic. 

While mental health is often discussed through the lens of services and treatment, stories like this remind us that some of the biggest pressures impacting people’s mental health are happening in people's homes, at supermarket checkouts, at petrol stations, and around kitchen tables.  

That experience is reflected in what we're hearing across the sector and in the National Mental Health Commission's National Report Card 2025, which highlights growing financial distress across the community and the barriers people face in accessing support. The Report Card found financial stress remains higher for people with a mental health condition, sitting at 1 in 3 compared to 1 in 5 for people without a mental health condition.  

Beyond Blue’s Australia’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Check 2026 also found financial pressure is the leading driver of personal distress over the last 12 months, with nearly half of all adults in Australia reporting it as a source of distress (46%). 

If we are serious about improving mental health outcomes, we need to address the social and economic factors that shape mental health in the first place – in addition to ensuring that we have a strong system of services and supports available for those who need it.  

Mental Health Australia has been working alongside Homelessness Australia to highlight the close links between housing insecurity and mental health, and the need for more social housing with mental health support.  

Some of our members are also already providing mental health and financial counselling support, recognising the strong connection between financial hardship and distress. 

And right now, those pressures are growing. The Reserve Bank announced a further rate rise last week, and the Prime Minister has pointed to finding savings in government spending to manage inflation. 

There is a terrible irony in this. People will need more government investment in mental health supports to manage through increasing financial strain, not less. Now is not the time to step back from investment in mental health services.  

Through our submission to the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, Mental Health Australia outlined how government can bolster critical community mental health supports now, and use broader social safety nets to prevent increasing distress.  

As we navigate these challenging times, we need to remember that mental health doesn't exist in isolation from the social and economic context people are living in. To get through this together, we need to both improve the conditions of people’s lives, and ensure the supports are there when people need them most.  

Carolyn Nikoloski 
Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Australia