ACT Government braces for increase in homelessness as public housing waiting list expands

I think that our politicians have their priorities all wrong. It is obscene to be spending so much money on a light rail when there is a crisis in community housing. Sure build the light rail, a bit more slowly. Governments can borrow at 1% interest. Rental on government housing must be able to return 3% interest. Better than a never to give a return train set.

From what I am aware of and have encountered in the last decade, the ACT public housing list waiting times had already been bad for many years now, with many people on waiting lists for very long periods of time, some for years, partly seemingly due to inattention of cases. I believe there is either not enough public housing available or the system is not able to manage the placements and cases for public housing effectively.

To be fair, on the flip side, the long waiting periods also discourages people from situations and circumstances that lead to avoidable and preventable requirements of public housing that could be addressed in other ways. The support systems in these regards had not there to deal with the complexities, such as counselling and amicable conflict resolution services for families and relationships.

Public housing is obviously an urgent necessity for the most vulnerable people, such as people with disabilities or victims of domestic violence.

In my public housing complex in Lyneham housing ACT have allocated two bedroom units to a dozen single people and one three bedroom unit allocated to an affluent appearing single male.
Clearly favoritism has been shown to certain people. Huge waste of $5million the building of the two complexes in this street, they could easily house more needy people not greedy ex public servants.

If you were expecting anything new, imaginative or innovative from our new Minister Vassarotti for management of public housing you had better think again. Instead, we get yet another puff piece and that’s about as much as she is going to do.

What needs to be done first of all, Ms Vassarotti, is a thorough audit of public housing to weed out waste and corruption. That ought to free up some space. Secondly, targeting of clients is imperative. For example, if it is possible for a 16-year-old pregnant girl to live with her parents until she gets her life in order, this should be the priority, freeing up housing for families in desperate need. Additionally, drug and alcohol-free hostels, including appropriate security arrangements, for homeless men and women instead of houses or apartments should be given serious consideration. These would be far more cost effective to build and would give people in need safe, warm shelter with their own facilities and a common dining room providing nutritious meals. They don’t need to be large, and several could be built in different suburbs. This would also provide the opportunity for these people to expand their life skills through managing the grounds, preparing meals, doing repairs, etc, while at the same time affording them access to services to help address life issues such as addictions that may affect their effective functioning. Thirdly public houses held on extremely expensive land should be sold and those funds directly funnelled into building more targeted housing across the city. Remember, Ms Vassarotti, we the tax and ratepayers of this city own this public housing, not you.

What we propose is not rocket science. What is rocket science is finding some decent politicians and charities in this town to adopt sensible solutions to problems.

Government housing should be allocated to the poorest and most vulnerable in society. The current social housing policy in the ACT is inequitable and does not go to the most needy in the community. Public housing should not be for life, and should be based purely on need and income. If someone is poor and unemployed and lives in public housing, but later earns more money and gets a good job, they should leave public housing and free up the government house for someone else who desperately needs it. If a person has higher income, they have means to live elsewhere, and they should not be in public housing. This would allow a much less fortunate and more needy person to have a government home.

The answer to this problem is not more public housing, it is more efficiently using the existing stock to place people in suitable homes (and move them if circumstances change) as well as maximising the assistance to get people into the private rental market.

There is no reason why the government should hold such a large amount of public housing stock. It is inefficient and leads to poor outcomes for a lot of people who would be perfectly able to operate in the private rental market but for the cost.

The government demolished hundreds of well built air-conditioned, 2-bedroom public housing apartments in the ABC Flats next to the Canberra Centre. They are being replaced with expensive, mostly one-bedroom private apartments, with zero public housing. Where are the people who lived here? Probably on the waiting lists.

When I came to Canberra, hostels were an option to live in, at least for singles and couples without children. Shame they are no more, as they would solve some of the shortage of places to live, at least for young people without children. I lived in both the YWCA in Civic for a year and later, for a few months, Hotel Acton. I think there were even a few families living at Hotel Acton in small separate dwellings. I enjoyed my time living in them and socialising with the other tenants.

LOL
Blaming the return to pre-COVID level of welfare is hilarious. Rebecca Vassarotti and the rest of the ACT Labor/greens coalition are failing the less fortunate, and are entirely to blame for this issue. Raising the cost of living through rate and tax hikes, then wasting billions of dollars on virtue signalling has directly caused this. They could have been fixing issues like homelessness, healthcare and education.

I’m confused, why is building more public housing the only answer?
According to ACT Community Services they have 12,000 public housing dwellings across the ACT, and according to the 2016 Census they were 82,000 private dwellings across the ACT. This means about 10% of dwellings in Canberra are for public housing, how can this not be enough?
The eligibility for public housing is an income of $40,000 per year for a single person for when someone is allocated a dwelling. But, what are the income circumstances for when that person will be asked to leave public housing? We all remember when a Member of the Legislative Assembly was found to be living in public housing.
Is the government sufficiently managing who continues to stay in public housing?