Decade-long wait for housing ‘disgusting’: Labor

At least one family considered to be priority applicants have been stuck on the public housing waiting list for more than nine years, Labor says, as it’s revealed how many Tasmanians have died while waiting to be housed.

Labor member for Braddon Shane Broad. Dean Winter will announce Labor’s new policy to get development moving in Tasmania. Picture: Labor Party Tasmania

At least one family considered to be priority applicants have been stuck on the public housing waiting list for more than nine years, Labor says.

The family, from the state’s northwest, was among 138 priority applicants who waited for five years or longer for housing — although some applicants without children had waited for as long as 11 years.

Homes Tasmania figures released under Right to Information laws revealed that 20 people on the waiting list had died before they could be housed in the last two years.

The data reveals that at the end of the 2024 calendar year, seven applicants with children had been waiting between six and seven years for housing, but redactions intended to hide small numbers revealed that a some had been waiting even longer — in at least one case for almost a decade.

The number of applicants without children who had been waiting for between ten and 11 years was also redacted from the document, but six had been waiting for between nine and ten years and 16 had been waiting for between eight and nine years.

The average wait time for priority applicants at the end of last year was 50 weeks, with those considered to be standard priority waiting for an average of 79 weeks.

Shadow Minister for Housing Shane Broad said it was horrific how long some needy Tasmanians were waiting for housing.

“It is absolutely disgusting that a Tasmanian family with children has been waiting for over nine years as priority applicants for housing,” he said.

“These kind of wait times are indefensible, but the housing horror stories under Liberals don’t stop there, with more than 20 families spending over five years on the waitlist.

“The Liberals will continue to spread the falsehood that they are meeting their social housing targets, but when Minister Felix Ellis is counting vacant blocks of land and hotel rooms for locum doctors as completed homes they can’t be taken seriously.

“After 11 years of the Liberals, housing in Tasmania needs a fresh start, not more of the same from the Liberals who spend all their time manipulating figures to make it seem like they are doing something.”

Minister for Housing, Planning and Consumer Affairs Felix Ellis accused Labor of scaremongering.

“The Labor Party continues to reach new lows, spreading fear about housing access across Tasmania,” he said.

“Labor knows about 90 per cent of Tasmanians on the housing register are in accommodation, however, they have an application pending for a social housing outcome.

“A Tasmanian Liberal Government has a plan to deliver more homes, faster and cheaper, putting more roofs over the heads of Tasmanians.”

Originally published as Decade-long wait for housing ‘disgusting’: Labor