Rebecca Pinkstone, the 424th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has been fascinated with housing since she was a university student.

That’s because housing is central to our lives and the economy, Bec says. People who have safe, secure and affordable housing find it easier to hold down a job, raise a family, socialise with friends and remain healthy. Conversely, people with housing challenges tend to experience worse outcomes.

Bec has spent much of her career working on affordable housing policy, in both the public service and not-for-profit sector. These days, she’s CEO of Homes NSW, a New South Wales government agency with about 3,500 employees that is responsible for social housing, affordable housing, and homelessness policy and program delivery in New South Wales.

Sadly, Bec says, a lot of people are struggling in our housing system, due to rising unaffordability. People are finding it harder to get on the property ladder, which is leading to lower rates of home ownership; and people are finding it harder to pay rent, which is leading to higher rates of homelessness.

The root cause is lack of supply, according to Bec. Partly, this is a public sector problem – the government owns about 4% of the state’s housing stock, which means it doesn’t have enough homes for all the low-income and vulnerable people who need subsidised accommodation. And, partly, this is a private sector problem – it’s hard for developers to construct new homes, due to rising building costs, difficulty in securing finance and opposition from local residents.

Bec is passionate about creating a housing system that works for everyone, whatever their age or income level. For that to happen, taxpayers may need to accept contributing more funds to the issue and property owners may need to accept reduced capital growth (to make housing more affordable).