NSW Social Housing: 35,000 migrant families in social housing as waitlist increases to 57,000

A shocking number of migrant families have taken up social housing across NSW, with new figures revealing more than 22 per cent of all tenancies being lived in by families from overseas.

Migrant families are taking up more than 35,000 social housing tenancies across NSW, as the number of households on NSW Government waitlists for a home balloon to a massive 57,401.

The latest NSW Communities and Justice Department data shows more than 22.6 per cent of all social housing tenancies in NSW are lived in by foreign-born residents, including migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and people on the Global Special Humanitarian visa, while a further 17.1 per cent of social housing tenancies taken up by families of “unknown origin”.

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Dr Greg Greiss, Mayor of Campbelltown visit a new social housing complex in Sydney’s south-west. Picture: Premiers office via NCA NewsWire

Jordan Knight of Migrant Watch Australia said at first glance, the figures were “very high ... given the extremely strained circumstances of social housing”.

“Given that only 1 per cent of those in social housing are here as either refugees, asylum seekers, or on Global Humanitarian Visa, a question must be asked: What about the other 20 per cent,” he said.

“We have a waitlist now numbering over 57,000 and wait times up to 10 years.

“The median wait time is now over 5 years. These are astonishing numbers.”

The NSW Government figures have also revealed the average wait time for families applying for social housing increased from 20 to 24 months over the last year to March 2024.

However, the statistics also revealed applicants in Northern NSW are waiting more than five and a half years to get into social housing, followed by 3.75 years for applicants in the Illawarra Shoalhaven region.

In Sydney’s southwest and western suburbs, wait times have reached two and a half years for families in desperate need of housing.

New social and affordable housing in Rouse Hill.

Talking to the data, Mr Knight said the “safety net” of social housing for struggling families across NSW was being eroded.

“The best way to ease demand for social housing is to pull the lever on immigration,” he said.

“These statistics show that our immigration system is adding to that strain.

“It’s affecting people’s lives and livelihoods, demand for homeless services are skyrocketing in parts of Sydney and across the state.”

Mr Knight questioned the citizenship status of residents the department references in its data as “foreign born”.

“If nearly a quarter of total social housing stock is being used by people who are foreign born, we need to know more about them: are they recently arrived migrants? Are they here on temporary visas? Under what circumstances have they arrived? Do they have the financial ability to afford their own housing?” he said.

“We also need to know if recently arrived migrants are being placed in the front of a queue before locals.

“What is the process for housing humanitarian migrants and refugees, given there are huge numbers of Australians currently waiting for housing?”

DCJ’s social housing dat could not determine how long a migrant family had been in Australia before applying for social housing.

Rose Jackson, Minister for Housing announces the GovernmentÕs Essential Housing Package. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Housing Minister Rose Jackson told the Sunday Telegraph the statistics were “sobering”.

“It paints a clear picture of the direct impact of the lack of housing affordability on homelessness,” she said. “Confronting the housing crisis is a priority for the NSW Government.”

The minister said the government was working to “stabilise the system” by mandating an immediate freeze on the sales of public housing.

She said the department had also “extended Temporary Accommodation to ensure vulnerable people are able to access support when they need it most, and extended Specialist Homelessness Services contracts and deploying more assertive outreach services to engage people sleeping rough and support them into long term, stable accommodation.”

She said the government had also spent $10 million to develop a “modular Housing Trial to deliver faster quality social housing” and fast- tracked the delivery of more social and affordable homes through the $610 Million Federal Government’s Social Housing Accelerator payment program.

“We know there is much more to do, which is why we are pushing for the Commonwealth to lift their contributions via with the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement,” she said.

“We need more supply, there are no two ways about it.

“To get people off the housing waitlist, we need to get them into safe and secure homes. You can’t solve homelessness if you don’t have affordable homes for people to live in.”

Originally published as NSW Social Housing: 35,000 migrant families in social housing as waitlist increases to 57,000