Experts call for more action to meet housing demand in Bundaberg

With more than 1200 people waiting for social housing in Bundaberg, experts are calling for more action from the State Government to back up its commitment to address the growing housing crisis.

The Queensland Council of Social Service is calling for more action by the Qld government to back up its commitment to address the growing housing crisis.

The Queensland Council of Social Services has called on the State Government to do more to address the housing crisis in Bundaberg, with more than 1200 people on the waitlist for social housing in the region.

It comes after the Department of Housing social housing register showed there were 1,256 people in the Bundaberg Local Government area with pending applications in June 2022, the latest month available, an increase of 31 per cent from 2019.

QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh said the Queensland Government needed to ramp up the supply of social housing to meet the rising demand amid the current housing crisis with record-low rental vacancies.

QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh said the Queensland government needs to ramp up the supply of social housing in Bundaberg to meet the rising demand amid the current housing crisis.

“There are more than 1200 people in Bundaberg on the social housing register and, with a rental vacancy rate of less than 1 per cent, even more doing it tough in the private rental market,” Ms McVeigh said.

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“The Queensland Government needs to demonstrate its stated commitment to putting a roof over every Queenslander’s head by building more social homes and committing to rental reforms to protect vulnerable Queenslanders.”

A Department of Housing spokesperson said the number of social housing dwellings in the Wide Bay had increased to 4187 under the Palaszczuk Government, with another 175 in the pipeline through the QuickStarts capital investment program.

Following the Premier’s announcement in October 2022 of the doubling of the Housing Investment Fund to $130m targeting 5,600 social and affordable homes, the spokesperson said 71 projects were currently short-listed across Queensland, 60 per cent of which were outside Brisbane.

Ms McVeigh said the government needed to provide more detail on where and when the homes targeted by the Housing Investment Fund would be built.

“The Government must be transparent about how many homes have and will be built in regional Queensland, as right now it isn’t clear where the 5,600 committed to from the Housing Investment Fund will be built, and by when,” she said.

“We need 2700 social homes to be built in Queensland each year just to avoid the current backlog of need.

“And we need the Queensland Government to supply more than 6000 social and affordable homes each year for the next 10 years to meet current and future demand.”

There were 1,256 people in the Bundaberg Local Government area with pending social housing applications in June 2022, an increase of 31 per cent from 2019.

Bundaberg Labor MP Tom Smith said he often met with homeless people around Bundaberg and stood by the government’s record on delivering social and affordable housing.

“We have delivered more housing in a single financial year in Bundaberg than what the LNP did in three years of Government,” Mr Smith said.

“Through our QuickStarts and Queensland Housing Strategy, we have delivered and are continuing to deliver unit complexes, duplexes, and detached houses for people of vulnerability in our community.”

In June Mr Smith announced the planned delivery of 60 new social housing homes in Bundaberg funded by the QuickStarts program, with construction expected to begin in 2024.

Bundaberg MP Tom Smith said the Palaszczuk is delivering on its commitments to provide social and affordable housing in Bundaberg through the QuickStarts program and Queensland Housing Strategy.

LNP Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett said the strategic purchasing of existing homes under the QuickStarts program was worsening the housing crisis by taking homes out of the rental market.

“Instead of making life harder for renters by taking homes out of the private markets, an LNP Government would use the Housing Investment Fund to increase housing supply,” Mr Bennett said.

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“We would also prioritise infrastructure partnerships with local government to unlock more land for housing, unleash the community housing sector and set KPIs to deliver social housing projects on-time and on-budget.”

A request for annual data for the number of social housing dwellings established in the Wide Bay was not provided by the Department of Housing by deadline.