Tasmania’s housing wait climbs to new highs and lengths

The state’s housing waiting list continues to grow, with the latest figures showing a jump of more than 20 per cent in the past year.

TASMANIA’S housing waiting list continues to grow with 4367 people now waiting for a home.

Labor said it was clear the government was not doing enough to fix the shortage but the government said it was delivering a record number of homes and help to those most in need.

The monthly housing dashboard shows the number of applications on the housing register increased from 3594 in September last year – a rise of 21.5 per cent.

Labor housing spokeswoman Ella Haddad.

Labor housing spokeswoman Ella Haddad said the number of families on the housing waitlist had blown out by almost 800 in a year.

“The average wait time to get a house is now almost 59 weeks, significantly longer than the 52.2 weeks recorded in August last year,” she said.

“And the number of times requests for emergency accommodation at shelters were turned away jumped from 15,221 in 2019-20 to 18,421 in 2020-21.

“All the data points to a worsening housing crisis, yet the government continue to say otherwise.”

Housing Minister Michael Ferguson. Picture: Eddie Safarik

Housing Minister Michael Ferguson said 2608 households had been helped in the past year through a variety of programs but he accepted more needed to be done.

“We have built 1124 homes, including 991 in social housing and 133 supported accommodation. An additional 889 houses are currently being built,” he said.

“A further 11 new homes were completed in the month of August and 296 in the past year. There have also been a further seven units of homeless accommodation secured to provide services to Tasmanians in need.”