Page 2522 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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community housing sector. It has put a $50 million revolving credit out to the community housing sector. Mrs Burke asked me where the $30 million went—or where part of it went. It went into 25 properties so far. That answers that question.
Mrs Burke: Is that the first $30 million or the second $30 million?
MR HARGREAVES: Furthermore, we have also added to that $30 million—$4.2 million in 2007-08. The fact is that we have to build or buy properties, and they vary in their price between $300,000 and $480,000, depending on the persons that we are housing. It is their need on the list. Public housing is not cheap housing. It is for those people who need it.
Every single one of those people who were rendered ineligible with the changes to PRHAP was already housed. We acknowledge the difficulties they may experience. CRA—commonwealth rental assistance—for example, needs a shake-up. For example, in respect of CRA, 30 per cent of the people do not need it. For 30 per cent it makes no difference to their particular circumstances; it is making a difference for only 30 per cent or 30-something per cent. If we changed the rules around the commonwealth rental assistance, the money would not go into the pockets of the landlords; it would assist people who are in significant housing stress.
I stress again that public housing is not a pseudonym for cheap housing. The issues of affordability are addressed in the Chief Minister’s affordable housing strategy. We need to talk about supply and demand in that. But public housing is not.
We have had enormous successes. In 2006-07, for example, we had 709 applicants from the applicant list housed. Some 96.5 per cent of those housed in this period were high needs and priority people. Some 85 per cent of all tenant households in public housing received a rental rebate during the year. That is a figure we have got to understand. We have got to understand this. We have got 11,500 tenancies out there; we have got nine per cent of the rental market. And 85 per cent of our tenancies are attracting a rebate—85 per cent of them.
Housing is also improving the service that it offers existing tenants. We continue to work for them. Our rental arrears have gone down. Mr Mulcahy was talking about rental arrears. It is less than $1.2 million. Cop this: 1.75 per cent of rental revenues—99 per cent of rent charged last year was collected. That is a better return than the private sector. It is a better thing.
On top of that, for those people who are behind in their rent, we work with them to change their circumstances so that they can do it. What we do not do very often is what happens in the private sector: evict them. That is because it is a revolving door. If we evict them, they are back in the homeless sector, back in the community and back in public housing very shortly. It does not make economic sense and it does not make social sense.
Mr Mulcahy: Isn’t there an incentive not to?
MR HARGREAVES: The incentive is that we work with them; we bring the social supports in. That is the bit that Minister Brough has not figured out in his changes to
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