Des Houghton: Taxpayers forking out for crisis hotels thanks to govt housing failures

Taxpayers are footing the bill for tens of millions of dollars in rent relief handouts and “emergency housing” in hotels thanks to Labor’s abject failure to provide public housing and encourage new builds.

Taxpayers are footing the bill for tens of millions of dollars in rent relief handouts and “emergency housing” in hotels thanks to Labor’s abject failure to provide public housing and encourage new builds.

Queensland Parliament was told your money was spent on short-term temporary accommodation in motels, hotels and apartments, and the purchase of essential items and services.

There were mesmerising columns of figures dating back to 2015 with little explanation of exactly where the money went, or who got it.

There were handouts for “assistance to transition to alternative housing” and “specialist support services” such as counselling.

More than $80 million has been spent on “specialist homelessness services” since 2015.

The cost of so-called Immediate Housing Response packages for last year alone was $41.3 million. That was a dramatic jump on the previous year’s tally of $27.3 million.

The figures were tabled by Meaghan Scanlon, the Minister for Housing and Public Works, in response to a question on notice from the Greens Amy MacMahon, the Member for South Brisbane.

A number of tents belonging to people who are homeless at a park in Rothwell in Brisbane’ north. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

The figures point to a botched rollout of public housing going back many years. And there was disappointing news this week that Scanlon’s QuickStarts program is floundering.

As the population soars due to interstate and overseas migration, all three levels of government have failed to assist the private sector to deliver more housing. Oddly, MacMahon blames the rich. Go figure.

“Between July 2015 and February 2024, the department has provided over $46 million in products and services designed to provide temporary financial assistance to over 66,000 households to help them find or keep a private rental property,” Scanlon told MacMahon.

Imagine if that money had gone to funding buildings instead of rents?

Scanlon’s figures point to the neglect of working class families who make up Labor’s electoral base. Another column of figures shows the cost of emergency hotel accommodation jumped to $3.6 million last year, up from $510,146 the previous year.

The costs for subsidising private housing and emergency accommodation have risen sharply each year since Labor came to power in February 2015. But the problem stretched back three decades, including brief periods when the LNP was in power.

The rise in the number of tent cities that are home to battlers who can no longer find suitable accommodation to buy or rent also happened on the watch of previous Labor housing ministers Mick de Brenni and Leeanne Enoch.

There are about 43,000 people on the social housing register.

However the Queensland Council of Social Service, QCOSS, estimates that there are 102,000 households in Queensland that have unmet need for social or affordable housing and which would ordinarily qualify for public housing.

It seems Labor’s efforts to provide housing are too little too late and hardly making a dent on the waitlist. Since 2015 it has provided an average of only 230 homes each year.

Shadow Minister for Housing Tim Mander said land for new housing was not getting to the market quickly enough.

“Labor’s dismal record in releasing land for housing means there has been less homes built, which means price increases,” he said.

“They’ve scared investors away with their botched renters’ tax and there are now fewer homes for people to rent.”

Mander pointed to a Real Estate Institute of Queensland residential vacancy report for the March quarter that showed Queensland’s vacancy rate was a devastating 0.9 per cent.

Amy MacMahon declined to be interviewed but sent some written comments.

“I’m pleased the government is finally stepping up and paying for temporary accommodation, but this is a very expensive Band-Aid to make up for years of Labor and the LNP underfunding public housing,” she said.

“This is a crisis decade in the making that began with successive Labor and Liberal governments abandoning housing to the private sector and cutting public construction.’’

She said it was unfortunate the State Government has to spend millions of dollars of public money on hotels and private rentals.

“There are 43,000 people on the social housing register. At the current rate, it will take over a decade to house these people alone, while tens of thousands more households are on the precipice of crisis.’’

Then MacMahon said something really silly. She attacked the very people who build homes to save governments from having to do so.

“We know that rich investors are pushing up rents, turning apartments into Airbnb hotels, and leaving thousands of properties empty,” she said.

“Things will only get worse if Labor continues to ignore long-term solutions to the housing crisis, like capping rents, taxing vacant properties, investing in public housing, and giving renters a guaranteed right to lease renewal.”

This is dangerous thinking in my view.

I fail to see how housing shortages can be fixed by demonising the providers and driving them away with hidden charges and regulations.

Originally published as Des Houghton: Taxpayers forking out for crisis hotels thanks to govt housing failures