This growing divide in the housing price to income ratio has been evident in economic activity data for years.

What’s less apparent is what could or should shift the imbalance for more and more people living on low incomes.

Is it up to governments to intervene through better policies? Or do we need to reset our social expectations?

People scrimp and scrounge to save a first home deposit, only to be outbid by portfolio property investors.

But then again, rentals rely on there being those who can afford to bring multiple houses to an open market.

Meanwhile, the idealised home, with ‘outdoor living’ and wifi connectivity, has gone from ‘want’ to ‘need’.

Yet basic, big-ticket items, such as a fridge, can become an even bigger expense because of planned product obsolescence.

Yes, modern living can be a game less like the astute ‘Monopoly’ and more the sheer luck of ‘Snakes & Ladders’.

Where and how we live is a private matter, but also merits public discussion about who we are as a community.

Two reports in today’s edition give pause for thought about Goulburn’s housing affordability.

It’s terrific to read that more aged-suitable units will be opening in the city by the end of next year.

But elsewhere on the same scale, a snapshot survey reveals a shortage of shelter for the vulnerable: people who have found the roll of life’s die has slid them right back to square one.

Shelter is a fundamental human need, along with food and clothing, but whose job is it to provide it?

Not every job will afford a new house. There are many menial, unskilled jobs that will never pay well, but our city needs those jobs done as much as it needs the work of doctors, teachers and police.

The community can help those who cannot home themselves.

For some, this means buying an investment property and bringing it to market at a reasonable price. For others, it means donating useable goods to charities, rather than dumping junk.

But for all it should mean dropping any attitude of judgement in favour of acknowledging the aptitude in everyone.