Premier touches down in Mount Gambier revealing pilot plan to help house essential workers in the regions

Mount Gambier will be the ‘first cab of the rank’ for a slew of new government homes aimed to address the critical supply shortages seen statewide.

Premier Peter Malinauskas has touched down in Mount Gambier telling South-East residents they are “the first cabs off the rank” for a government scheme to house essential workers in the regions.

Under the Regional Key Worker Housing Scheme, 30 homes are being built for essential workers from teaching, police and healthcare.

Paramedic intern Zach, who moved to Mount Gambier in October last year, said he struggled to find a “reasonable” rental and was lucky a colleague had a room available.

“If that wasn’t an option, I’d have been a bit stuck,” he said.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Mr Malinauskas said the government would not be able to determine the success of the program until all 30 homes had been built.

Paramedic intern Zach is one of many essential workers who struggled to find a home after moving to the regions. Picture: Arj Ganesan

“The homes we’re announcing today will be built by 2025 — we want to see those homes operating within the system and how the build model works,” Mr Malinauskas said.

“We want to step in where there is market failure — we don’t want to invest in housing where the market would otherwise be able to address the issue.

“But we know that at the moment where there is a chronic shortage (in regional housing).

“The other thing we’re keen on as part of the pilot is to see if there’s a means in which we can get engaged with industry so that key worker housing isn’t just about government workers.

“It’s at least a couple of years worth of work before we can start to form a view about the success or failure of a pilot.”

Premier Peter Malinauskas touched down in Mount Gambier announcing the start of a pilot program to help bring essential government workers to the regions. Picture: Arj Ganesan

Four new homes will be constructed on the 1100-sqm development-ready parcel of land, located Mount Gambier’s inner east.

Construction is expected to start early next year, with all four homes set to be completed by mid-2025.

Homes will also be built under the scheme in the Riverland, Mid North, Far West Coast and Copper Coast regions.

Independent member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell said if successful the scheme could be expanded to see over a dozen homes built in the southeast.

“(If) we get this right — we’ll be seeing 20, 30 upwards (homes) being built into the future,” Mr Bell said.

Independent member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell hopes dozens of government homes can be built should the pilot program succeed. Picture: Arj Ganesan

The announcement comes as six new public homes came online, with four expected to be built by August in Mount Gambier, while 16 additional homes are in the design stage.

The homes are the first built under the separate Public Housing Improvement Program.

The program will also look to address the worrying number of Housing SA homes across the region sitting vacant – mostly due to outstanding maintenance problems

It was recently revealed almost 2,000 Housing SA homes were vacant while 17,000 people languish on the public housing waiting list.

The SA Housing Authority has also purchased a 1.8 hectare site that will enable around 40 additional public and affordable homes to be built along Shepherdson Rd.