Page 2569 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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This was reviewed in 2012. The government is now dodging this, claiming that additional studies would provide significant new insights. Housing stress amongst students is a serious problem in this town, and it all stems back to unaffordable housing and the cost-of-living pressures that Canberra families face.
Then we have recommendation 4:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government report to the Assembly by the last sitting day of 2014 on factors affecting older women at risk/in housing crisis in the ACT.
I am pleased that the government have agreed to examine the recommendations of the ACT Shelter report on this issue, but they are refusing to report back on the factors that affect older women at risk in our town. That is disappointing; this is an issue that has been described as an approaching tsunami.
Then, from the issues we face with affordability and cost of living, we move on to the issue within our own housing stock. It constantly completely blows me away that the ACT government do not have a record of what houses they have in the system with disability access. When following this up, I was told that a five-year audit is being undertaken and that maybe after that they will be able to tell me. The idea that we hold homes in the government’s housing portfolio that are modified for disability access and we do not know which homes they are is of great concern.
Apparently the government do not know the state of their stock. They do not know what houses have what insulation or what heating and cooling systems there are. They do not know what modifications have been made. These are all things that any general property manager would know, so it is very surprising that we do not know these things, and it is even more surprising that it is going to take five years and who knows how much money to find out.
I am pleased that the government has agreed to recommendation 86, which states:
The Committee recommends that Housing ACT give consideration to requiring that all future public housing stock be built to meet high adaptability and accessibility standards.
That is a good thing. It still concerns me that we have disability modified homes that are not being adequately utilised because we do not know where they are, we do not know what stock we have. It is a bit like property management 101 if you are in the private sector. It should be a focus for our government, which should be trying to give the greatest support to our most vulnerable residents.
I desperately hope we find a way to decrease cost-of-living pressures on people in Canberra, especially the thousands of Canberrans who are considered at risk of homelessness. I hope that very soon the government will take this issue very seriously and stop increasing costs for everyone. I hope we will be able to increase the number of affordable homes in the ACT and fill that gap in the housing continuum to assist to alleviate the housing crisis we have. And I hope the government will realise how important it is to effectively manage our public housing stock and start managing it in the most efficient and effective way.
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