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HOUSOS. HOUSOS. HOUSOS.

I remember between years 6 and 9, which would have been 2011 to 2014, Housos was commonly spoken about amongst my friends and I.

We would update each other on new episodes the next day at school. Reflecting back, it was probably because I was living in housing commission in Riverwood at the time.

For the non-Australians, 'housos' is slang for housing commission, otherwise known as public housing, which is provided to low-income families and individuals to prevent homelessness. It’s generally quite synonymous with dr*g abuse, mental health issues and junkies. I won’t unpack that too deeply here, as I intend to explore this topic individually in the future, especially given my lived experience. But it is important context when talking about this show.

Housos was wild. I used to stay up to 10PM just to wait for it to air on the SBS channel on TV. The show simply would not fly in today’s climate of political correctness, and I don’t know how they managed to even convince networks for seasons 3 and 4, which aired in 2020 and 2022. Sidenote, I actually had no idea there were seasons 3 and 4 until searching up Housos episodes.

Housos is a heavily satirical show which stereotyped “bogans” and “low-income households”. Although, no demographic really escaped their stereotypes in the show. Junkies, police, white people, bikies (the Hunterz), Middle Easterns which were primarily Lebanese (the Assassuns), Polynesians, Indians, etc… Everyone caught a stray.

It was very much a “you loved it or hated it” kind of show. The humour leaned hard into exaggeration with acting so over the top, it almost felt intentionally bad. That exaggerated performance style was part of the satire. But also why the show wasn’t for everyone. 

Created, written and directed by Paul Fenech, Housos was set in the fictional suburb of Sunnyvale, New South Wales. The setting was unmistakably an exaggeration of Western Sydney. The show was regularly filmed across suburbs like Merrylands, Mount Druitt, Granville, Smithfield, Yennora, Ermington, Guildford, and many more that I am missing. These places felt instantly recognisable if you grew up around them.

The series received feature-length films and won a Logie Award for the ‘Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program’ in 2014. Prior to Housos, Paul had already built an almost cult following with satirical shows like Pizza, Fat Pizza, and Swift and Shift Couriers, which were also satirical shows.

When Housos first aired in 2011, it quickly became controversial due to its crude and exaggerated portrayal of life in public housing estates. The show faced heavy criticism, primarily from individuals who lived in housing commission, arguing it reinforced harmful stereotypes. This backlash had prompted political efforts to have the show removed from television.

In many ways, Housos was the complete antithesis of Home and Away. I don’t have a fully formed stance on the show because I was only 11 when the show first aired and only have positive memories of it. Maybe I should, but it didn’t affect me while I was living in housing commission at the time.

What I do remember vividly is the constant comparisons between Jimmy the Junkie and Tony Abbott, Australia’s former Prime Minister from 2013 to 2015. There’s even a photo of the two together. I guess Tony Abbott was a fan of Jimmy.


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