Intersections Between Housing and Health Vulnerabilities: Share Housing in Sydney and the Health Risks of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed complex connections between housing and health vulnerabilities. By investigating the share housing market in Sydney, Australia during the COVID-19 period, this paper examines these connections, highlighting health risks associated with shared facilities, overcrowding, and rental insecurity. Using data from Flatmates.com.au, Australia’s dominant share housing platform, the paper analyses advertisements offering or seeking share housing in April and August 2020. The analysis highlights health risks, vulnerabilities and risk management strategies employed by those looking for share accommodation or new household members during the pandemic period as well as wider implications for housing and health policy.

摘要

COVID-19疫情暴露了住房和健康脆弱性之间的复杂联系。通过调查COVID-19期间澳大利亚悉尼的共享住房市场，本文研究了这些联系，强调了与共享设施、过度拥挤和租金不安全有关的健康风险。本文利用澳大利亚主要的共享住房平台Flatmates.com.au的数据，分析了2020年4月和8月提供或寻求共享住房的广告。该分析强调了在疫情期间寻找合租房或新家庭成员的人所采用的健康风险、脆弱性和风险管理策略，以及对住房和健康政策的广泛影响。

KEYWORDS:

• Share housing
• COVID-19
• pandemic
• health
• crowding
• Sydney

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers and the Cities Writing Group for their constructive feedback on the original manuscript, whose suggestions and comments greatly improved the paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.