Opposition’s Michelle Lensink claims Parafield Gardens home empty, but actually occupied as homelessness crisis worsens

An attempt to highlight the hardship public housing tenants face in securing a home has backfired on the Opposition when a property they identified as being vacant actually wasn’t.

The Opposition’s attempt to highlight the hardship public housing tenants face in securing a home backfired when a property they identified as being vacant actually wasn’t.

Opposition social and community housing spokeswoman Michelle Lensink said a Parafield Gardens home was empty as she pushed the government to get Housing Trust homes back online and available for tenants.

However, the home was – and remains to be – occupied by a victim of domestic violence.

Claims a neighbouring property was also vacant were denied.

Ms Lensink said the Opposition was included in an email about the Parafield Gardens home from neighbours who “complained…that the house was sitting vacant”.

There are 1774 vacant public housing homes, of which 900 are undergoing maintenance and 95 major maintenance.

Opposition Social and Community Housing spokeswoman Michelle Lensink outside a Parafield Gardens home she said was vacant but it is actually tenanted. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

Ms Lensink said claims one of the homes was tenanted by a victim of domestic violence was “interesting”.

“From my understanding there’s probably about 60 or 70 properties in the system out of 34,000 public housing properties but it seems like a bit of a coincidence.

“But if we even take it on face value, people who flee domestic violence situations generally don’t return.

“The assessment is generally made that an alternative property will be made available and for good reason, those properties are made available very quickly.

“It’s an interesting suggestion by the minister.”

Human Services Minister Nat Cook said neither of the two Parafield Gardens homes were untenanted.

“In fact, 98.5 per cent of SA Housing Authority properties in the Parafield Gardens area are occupied,” she said.

She said the government had committed an extra $260m to public housing and homelessness since March 2022, which would build 564 new homes and support major upgrades to 350 vacant properties.

Human Services Minister, Nat Cook. Picture: Matt Loxton

“We also stopped the sale of 580 homes,” she said.

“The Malinauskas government secured an extra $135.8m from the Commonwealth for social housing in South Australia that will deliver hundreds of new homes for those in need.

“The national housing market is extremely tight and we’re doing all we can to build more new homes and bring vacant properties back on line.”

Ms Lensink said it was critical public housing be brought back online quickly to enable new tenants to move in.

She said the multi-step process to moving people into Housing Trust homes needed to be reduced and simplified, and properties that required work or maintenance could be rented.

“One of the ways we’ve suggested they could do that is homes that are safe and secure could easily be re-tenanted and some of those trades come in while people are in situ,” she said.

“Certainly a lot of people experiencing homelessness and are on the waiting list would be more than happy to move into a property that is safe and secure and have the works happen around them once they’ve moved in.

“It is unacceptable people are being left in this situation in the middle of a housing crisis.

“The government has had a plan to try and improve maintenance, as did the former government, so the public housing assets (are) older, and they do need a lot of maintenance so it is a continuous problem and any effort is always welcome to reduce that.”