Housing Tasmania properties left vacant as home crisis bites

DOCUMENTS reveal Housing Tasmania properties are being left vacant for months despite record numbers of people on the public housing priority list.

Marie has been on the housing register since early last year. She is living with her son Luke but his lease expires next month. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

PRIORITY cases make up the vast majority of Tasmania’s public housing applicants, but some Housing Tasmania properties are being left vacant for months, documents obtained by the Mercury reveal.

Right to information documents show almost 70 per cent — or 2331 — of those on the 3393-strong housing register are priority cases and just 967 were general applicants.

In March it was revealed that the average wait time for priority public housing applicants had ballooned from 43 weeks to 63 weeks within a year.

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One of those priority applicants is Marie, a 63-year-old pensioner suffering health issues.

Marie has been on the housing register since early last year and was upgraded to priority after providing evidence of her illnesses, which include respiratory illness, arthritis and depression.

THE WAITING GAME ■ Housing register public housing — general: 967 ■ Housing register public housing — priority: 2331 ■ Suspended applications: 95 ■ Total public housing register: 3393 ■ Number of applicants housed between January 1, 2017, and February 28, 2018: 649 PUBLIC HOUSING VACANCY ■ Vacant for 2-4 months: 61 ■ Vacant for 4-6 months: 13 ■ Vacant for 6+ months: 4 Data for January 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018

She has been living with her son Luke for more than a year, but faces homelessness from early May when his lease expires. Luke said he had repeatedly contacted Housing Minister Roger Jaensch and his predecessor Jacquie Petrusma without reply and is frustrated that a number of Housing Tasmania properties in Warrane — near Marie’s doctor’s surgery — have been left vacant and boarded up for months.

Marie said an appointment with Colony 47 scheduled for Thursday was cancelled because there was nothing they could do for her and a worker suggested she instead try to find a home in Queensland near her daughter.

“I’m very emotional. I don’t sleep at night worrying where I’m going to be living and whether I’m going to be living on the street,” Marie said.

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The boarded up properties in Warrane are just some of the Housing Tasmania properties left vacant. Right to information documents show 61 Housing Tasmania properties were left vacant for between two and four months between January last year and February 28 this year.

Thirteen were vacant for between four and six months and four were vacant for more than six months.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Housing Tasmania occupancy rate was 99.2 per cent at the end of February and 96.5 per cent of housing properties were allocated to priority cases.

Greens leader and former human services minister Cassy O’Connor said it was rare that such a high percentage of applicants on the housing register were listed as priority.

“The trouble is the lack of investment in social housing over the past four years, so even though applicants are recognised as in priority need, there simply aren’t the homes available,” Ms O’Connor said.

“This data confirms the critical undersupply of affordable housing in Tasmania.

“Every number is an individual, couple or family in housing distress.”

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Labor housing spokesman Josh Willie said it was clear the vast majority of people waiting for a home had been assessed as priority because they were particularly vulnerable.

“The fact that houses are sitting vacant for months at a time is indicative of the Hodgman Liberal Government’s lack of commitment to finding solutions to the housing crisis,” Mr Willie said.

Labor housing spokesman Josh Willie.

“Even if these homes have maintenance issues, Mr Jaensch needs to show more urgency in allocating resources to turn these properties around and make them available rather than remaining empty for months at a time at the same time people are living in tents and sleeping rough.”

Mr Jaensch said the figures instead showed the Government had made significant improvements getting Tasmanians into affordable housing, with the current turnaround time for public housing properties 24.1 days, below the national benchmark of 28 days.

Mr Jaensch said the average turnaround time under the previous Labor Green government was 33.6 days. He said the Government knew there was more to do and was investing $125 million into its affordable housing strategy.

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A government spokesman said all requests for assistance should be made through Housing Tasmania.

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