Page 5418 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 16 November 2010
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Public housing is a finite resource—320,000 properties nationally, five per cent of the total housing stock in Australia. In the ACT, public housing accounts for eight per cent of stock. To allocate it in a fair and transparent way, all housing authorities have criteria for allocation and they all have waiting lists. States and territories continue to target public housing to those most in need. Housing is allocated across all jurisdictions on a priority needs basis. As a consequence, the proportion of newly assisted households that are in the greatest need has steadily risen.
The ACT has created 557 new public housing tenancies in 2009-10, and 89.2 per cent of these were allocated to people in the greatest need from the public housing register. This rate of priority allocation was second only to Tasmania, which allocated 94.8 per cent of its 291 new allocations to people in the greatest need. This targeting to highest need also influences the ability of housing organisations to be responsive to people’s changing housing needs over time. So when we look at the total number of people housed in the ACT for 2009-10, we see that 83 per cent of these were people off the priority or high-needs housing list. This means that clients must have crisis or priority response needs to move.
The national average for priority allocations was 74.9 per cent, with Queensland at 87.7 per cent and South Australia at 80.3 per cent—also above the national average—Victoria at 72 per cent, New South Wales at 69.5 per cent, Western Australia at 61 per cent and Northern Territory at 45.7 per cent. They are all well below the national average. New South Wales created the most new households in 2009-10 with 5,851. Victoria established 3,799, Queensland 3,886, Western Australia 2,400, South Australia 2,249, and the Northern Territory 467.
The increased targeting of public housing has led to a more complex tenant population in public housing. In 2009-10 the ACT reached a level where 90 per cent of its tenant population was on a rebated rent. This means their incomes are so low that their rent was more than 25 per cent of their income, so they got a rental rebate from Housing ACT. All jurisdictions face similar pressures, with New South Wales also at 90 per cent and other jurisdictions having a rebated rental population higher than 83 per cent of their total tenant population.
The largest average rebate of $224.70 per week belongs to the ACT, which is $97.50 over the national average of $127.20. Let us stop for a minute to think about that. Public housing tenants in the ACT on average receive rent assistance from Housing ACT each week worth $224.70. That is a significant level of support, and I am proud to be able to provide it to individuals and families who need it. The New South Wales average rental rebate is $145.20, by way of comparison, and the Northern Territory’s average rebate is $157.70.
Over time, increased targeting to the most disadvantaged has placed two critical pressures on our system. The targeting of clients, in effect, puts extreme pressure on the rental revenue stream. The complexity of this client group also places upward pressure on the cost of service. Additional resources are required to assess and
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