Dozens of social housing homes sitting empty in Bass electorate, Labor laments

Fifty-seven social housing homes are languishing empty in one Tassie electorate despite the state being in the grips of a housing crisis, Labor has bemoaned. What they want done >>

Michelle O'Byrne. Picture: Kenji Sato

Fifty-seven social housing homes are sitting vacant in the Bass electorate, according to Labor, with 33 of those waiting on insurance works, redevelopment or renovation.

On Wednesday, Michelle O’Byrne, said information provided following a question on notice to parliament revealed 18 of those properties had been sitting stagnant for more than six months.

“If you put the money into the works program … there’s potentially up to 57 families that we could house pretty quickly,” the Labor MP for Bass said.

She said she’d heard anecdotally that some homes had remained empty for up to 18 months – and questioned why insurance jobs were taking so long to rectify.

“The government should have mechanisms to fix those kinds of problems,” Ms O’Byrne said.

“If the government has entered into unsatisfactory insurance arrangements, then the government must resolve them so we can get these houses fixed and people off the streets.”

She said while she understood there was “no silver bullet” to solving the housing crisis, she’d never seen it so bad in her 25-year political career – with 4500 people currently on Tasmania’s social housing waiting list.

Ms O’Byrne said she knew of one woman in her 80s who was couchsurfing, several people sleeping in cars, and one person who couldn’t receive NDIS program assistance until she had a home to live in.

Housing Tasmania's longest continuous public housing tenant, Douglas Bessell (who turns 88 next week) of Elphin in Launceston, has been living in the same house for 60 years, the home at 26 Tudor Avenue, Elphin

Speaking from the Starting Point Neighbourhood House at Ravenswood, Ms O’Byrne said the situation was dire.

“They now have people sleeping on their couches during the day because they haven’t been able to get social housing,” she said.

“I’ve never seen it like this before.

“Ten years ago in Tasmania, there were fewer than 2200 people on the list for a home, waiting on average 21 weeks. Wait times have now quadrupled to 80 weeks.”

Taylor Bouvy, program community coordinator at the Ravenswood Neighbourhood House, said while her organisation was not set up for emergency relief – it often had to fill that role regardless.

She said a number of people had come in to sleep on their couches, or had fallen asleep in their op shop or computer room.

“That’s come from them not being able to sleep of a night due to safety concerns, due to them not having somewhere dry to rest,” Ms Bouvy said.

“When someone is there in front of you, in such clear exhaustion … it’s something that’s impossible to turn your head away from.”

She said in collaboration with other organisations, the Neighbourhood House tried to help as best it could, offering swags and sleeping bags, dignity bags with sanitary items, gloves and beanies, along with hot drinks and food.

Meanwhile, Housing Minister Guy Barnett said in a statement that June was a record month of social housing in Tasmania, with 380 new homes becoming available through Homes Tasmania.

Homes Tasmania has been contacted for comment.

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Originally published as Dozens of social housing homes sitting empty in Bass electorate, Labor laments