Climate hotbeds
Extreme heat in social housing
In November 2024, Environmental Justice Australia launched a new report, ‘Climate hotbeds: understanding climate injustice through extreme heat in social housing’.
As temperatures rise and heatwaves become more frequent, social housing can become a ‘hotbed’ of complex and intertwining issues for tenants and their communities.
Extreme heat events cause more deaths in Victoria than any other climate-related disaster and social housing tenants – including people with disabilities, First Nations people, women, children, and older adults – are especially at risk of experiencing injustice and harm.
Too often, social housing is not built to withstand the increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves and many homes lack basic cooling infrastructure. When air conditioning is available, high energy costs can make it unaffordable for residents to use.
This report summarises Environmental Justice Australia's learnings and research from our work on the Climate Justice Legal Project’s first advocacy focus, extreme heat in social housing.
This report examines how lawyers can use the law to address the disproportionate risk of climate harms experienced by the frontline communities serviced by Victorian Community Legal Centres (CLCs).
Our research focuses on understanding the legal avenues of redress at the intersection between climate science, tenancy and housing law, and human rights law in Victoria. Through this, we hope this report provides a resource for Victorian CLCs in understanding opportunities for legal assistance, intervention and law reform to create climate safe housing for social housing residents.
This report highlights legal opportunities to address heat vulnerability in Victoria’s social housing system and the importance of climate safety in protecting communities.
It outlines important actions for legal practitioners in CLCs to identify climate-related legal needs and advocate for their clients, and calls for systemic change to ensure the safety, wellbeing and dignity of those most at risk from extreme heat in a rapidly warming world.
Key recommendations include:
- listening to communities and empowering them as agents of change in their own lives
- identifying the climate justice dimensions of community legal needs relating to housing and tenancy
- exploring opportunities for legal redress through the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and other forums
- advocating for broader policy reforms to improve social housing infrastructure and embed climate resilience in housing law.
By recognising the intersection between climate justice and social justice, CLCs can help push for systemic change to ensure social housing is climate-resilient, liveable and equipped to protect its residents from a warming climate, today and into the future.
