The number of vacant and tenantable public housing homes across South Australia has risen to 340 – up from 293 last October

While more desperate South Australians join the housing waitlist, hundreds of liveable public homes sit empty and ready to be used.

The number of vacant and tenantable public housing homes across South Australia has risen to 340 – up from 293 last October – as people on the wait list, like Chris Adams, 48, live in their cars.

SA Housing Trust vacancy rates revealed under Freedom of Information laws show the number of available but empty homes has increased by 47 in six months.

The data also revealed the overall number of vacant Trust properties, including those undergoing maintenance, had risen from 1927 to 1936 since September last year.

Chris Adams is living in his car after eight years without a home. Picture: Dean Martin

Mr Adams has been homeless since last year and said he had been on the Trust waitlist for seven months, having to live in his car for the past few months. He previously lived in Trust properties, but has twice voluntarily ended the tenancies, mostly because of safety fears due to violence in Trust complexes, including an instance where a neighbour smashed through his back door. But the lack of housing is now causing serious health problems for the well-spoken, well-dressed man, who hasa chronic condition that means he passes blood at least once a day, but has access to public toilets only until 9pm, when they close.

When he discovered the number of vacant Trust homes, Mr Adams went straight to the Modbury Trust office and asked: “Can’t I have a place?”

Mr Adams said his conversations with staff were in vain.

“If they have 340 houses free, why can’t I move into one?” he said.

“They either don’t care or they don’t know how to fix their own problems.”

The Trust said Mr Adams’s situation was complex and it made housing him difficult.

Mr Adams recently rejected a Trust offer to live in a boarding house because he was worried that would be unsafe. Last October, responding to questions from the opposition in parliament, Housing Minister Nick Champion said there were 293 vacant and habitable Trust homes as of September.

“What we want to do over time is put in place policies that will reduce the number of vacant ‘offerables’ to a normal vacancy rate … ,” he told parliament.

A Trust spokeswoman said there were more vacant homes now “because we have completed maintenance on more properties and they are now ready for tenants”.

She said the Trust “is always looking at more rapid and responsive ways to manage vacancy management, ensuring properties are allocated as safely and quickly as possible”.

But she said there was a tradies shortage and the Trust received about 500 calls a day to its maintenance centre.

Mr Champion said the Trust was working hard to fix the vacant properties and allocate them to new tenants.

Originally published as The number of vacant and tenantable public housing homes across South Australia has risen to 340 – up from 293 last October