Page 507 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 18 February 2015
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we have such a high rate of homelessness. Canberra’s private rental housing market is one of Australia’s least affordable for low and moderate income earners. And this contributes to the high rate of homelessness in the ACT.
High house prices in Canberra are also a contributing factor, with many people struggling to afford their own home. According to figures released by the ABS on 11 February 2015, the ACT has the third highest mean price for houses, at $570,600. Canberra house prices increased by 1.7 per cent during 2014.
The high rate of homelessness in the ACT puts substantial pressure on homelessness services. ACT Shelter have documented that over half the people seeking emergency accommodation on any given night cannot be provided for. And, unfortunately, the government does not appear to have a plan to manage this.
As at 2 February 2015 the average waiting time for people on the standard public housing waiting list was 788 days—788 days that someone on the standard housing list, unable to afford accommodation in Canberra’s private rental market, must wait—just over two years on average for a public housing property. This means that for approximately two years they may rely heavily on ACT homelessness services for support. Two years is longer than an elephant’s gestation period. It is a very long time. It gets worse. There are currently 1,443 applications on the high needs waiting list as at 2 February 2015. This is just not good enough.
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s regional wellbeing report released last year, the average income in the ACT is the highest of any state or territory in Australia and ranks among the top four per cent of all OECD regions. It does not make sense that a city with an average income ranking in the top four per cent of all OECD regions will, on the flipside, have such an atrocious public housing waiting list.
The Productivity Commission report on government services released in January this year shows that in 2004 there were 11,139 ACT public housing dwellings or properties. This number dropped to 10,848 public housing dwellings in 2014. You would have thought perhaps that the number of public housing properties could have increased in order to meet rising demand. But under this current Labor government the ACT public housing system is disintegrating right before our eyes. I ask the government in the motion today to provide detailed information showing how it is managing the public housing decline and exactly how it is providing exits from ACT homelessness services. What is the government doing to help those leaving domestic violence, young people, families, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, people with disabilities and the elderly, specifically, to be housed in ACT public housing?
One of my constituents, whom I have had ongoing correspondence with, has a young son with a disability, and his son uses a wheelchair. This constituent has been unable for years to get an ACT public housing property that he can live in with his son. The property this constituent is currently living in is not suitable for his son because his son cannot get to the bathroom using his wheelchair. This constituent’s young son must crawl or slide along the floor to use the bathroom and toilet.
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