Six figure sum to fix and maintain Cairns social housing properties revealed
The astonishing cost of maintaining and repairing Cairns’ social housing portfolio has been revealed, as contractors contend with junk and used syringes in horrific end-of-lease clean-ups.
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The astonishing spend to maintain and repair Cairns’ social housing portfolio has been revealed, as contractors contend with junk and used syringes in horrific end-of-lease clean-ups.
During the 2020-21 financial year the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy spent $11,873,018 within the Cairns Local Government Area to repair, modify and maintain a portfolio of 2,692 dwellings.
Broken down into state electorates Mulgrave properties received the lion’s share of state spending with $8,075,938, the Cairns electorate’s expenditure amounted to $6,778,648 and in Barron River the total cost was $1,340,095.
At one duplex in Bayview Heights the department spent $76,199 on maintenance in 2020-2021, according to department records.
And an Aeroglen “cluster house” cost $34,991 to maintain in the same period.
Last year, Minister for Communities and Housing Leeanne Enoch said that as part of a $1.6b program the Cairns region was in line to receive $54m of investment in 137 new social homes, due for completion by June 2022.
As of May 2021, 117 of those were complete, Ms Enoch said.
A Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy spokeswoman said separate to the Cairns region’s maintenance budget, $2.8m was committed to construct seven new social housing homes in 2020-2021 throughout the Cairns Local Government Area.
The spokeswoman said a “planned investment” of $102.1m during a four-year period to 2025 will deliver 255 new social and affordable homes under a QuickStarts program.
In regard to existing properties the spokesman said the state maintains building assets in accordance with Maintenance Management Framework.
“This includes work that is planned and performed to prevent the premature deterioration of a home, or maintenance that is responsive and performed to restore a home to an operational, safe and/or secure condition,” the spokesman said.
Maintenance works are outsourced to QBuild as the department’s preferred supplier and QBuild then uses their own staff or registered subcontractors to undertake required work.
One QBuild contractor told the Cairns Post his workers were often faced with horrific properties to make good for the next tenant.
He described properties filled with junk and used syringes at-end-of lease fix-ups.
Often, so-called “tenanted” properties sit empty for months.
Unmaintained gardens attract squatters to social housing properties who have been known to smash windows and vandalise houses.
Earlier this year it was revealed social housing tenants had knocked holes in the walls to dump used tampons and caused faeces to pile up and overflow from blocked toilets.
The auditor-general handed down a scathing report into the state’s social housing woes in July that revealed 8430 of the state’s social housing dwellings have two or more spare bedrooms, lack of consistency over how tenancies are awarded and a failure of modelling or forecasting to determine future housing needs.
Auditor-General Brendan Worrall’s report called for a major overhaul of state-managed social housing.
Queensland Shelter strategic engagement manager Jackson Hills said the affordable housing sector has encountered the same headwinds as the wider building industry in terms of construction supply shortages and skyrocketing input costs.
“It’s just another barrier in front of us achieving the sort of accelerated growth targets for community housing supply we so desperately need,” he said
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Originally published as Six figure sum to fix and maintain Cairns social housing properties revealed
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