Queensland government spend on hotels for homeless surge as housing crisis spirals
Public spending on hotel rooms for homeless people has surged from $0 when the state Labor government was elected nine years ago to $3.6m this year.
Public spending on hotel rooms for homeless people has surged from $0 when the state Labor government was elected nine years ago to $3.6m this year, as housing firms as a major issue in the October state election.
Surging rental prices and dwindling supply has forced more people into homelessness since the pandemic.
New figures released in a parliamentary question on notice from Greens MP Amy MacMahon revealed the escalation.
State government spending on hotel rooms was non-existent when Labor came to power and has jumped from $149,000 in 2019-20 to $3.6m this year.
Funding for 204 homelessness services to provide short-term accommodation, essential items and support, such as counselling, had skyrocketed from $1.85m in 2015 to $41.31m in 2023-24, Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said.
In the 18 months to January, more than 8400 households had been helped through the immediate housing response package, broking 208,290 nights of temporary accommodation.
Dr MacMahon said the huge increase in spending on emergency accommodation was an “expensive band-aid” and the result of decades of public housing underfunding.
“Since 2015, Labor has only added on average 230 homes each year to the total social housing stock in Queensland,” she said.
“When the current social housing waitlist now sits at over 43,000 Queenslanders, this just isn’t nearly enough.
“As a result, now they have no choice, but to pump millions of dollars of public money into hotels and private rentals.”
The Greens have been pushing for nationwide rental caps.
In Queensland, Dr MacMahon tried to introduce legislation in 2022 to impose a two-year rental freeze.
A Labor-dominated parliamentary committee examining the laws found rental controls were “not effective in improving housing affordability for renters and can lead to distortions in the market”.
Last year, the state government limited rent increases to once a year.
Micah Projects chief executive Karyn Walsh said that it had little impact. “I understand there are challenges in putting on caps, but there needs to be some cap (brought) in,” she said.
“People can no longer accommodate rent increases when they are already spending more than 50 per cent of their income on rent and then it goes up another $200 a week.
“The spikes in rent are incredible. We know that as interest rates goes up, rents will go up, but the rents are going well above that.”
The Miles government has a target of delivering 53,500 social homes by 2046.
But the building industry says there is “no hope” that would be achieved because of a deal struck with unions that has driven up construction by up to 20 per cent.
Best Practice Industry Conditions, in which contractors tendering for major government-funded projects negotiate agreements with unions and sets a high floor on conditions, has exacerbated a tradie shortage and blown out costs and timeframes, it says.
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