FOLLOWING, what the ACT government labelled as a “nation-leading investment in public housing”, community housing provider Havelock Housing say it will have a very minimal impact on Canberra’s severe social housing shortage.
Today (August 5), Chief Minister Andrew Barr announced 60 new public housing dwellings will be built as part of an expansion to its public housing investment, but Havelock Housing CEO Andrew Rowe says it’s not enough.
“It’s disappointing that these decisions will have very minimal impact on Canberra’s severe social housing shortage,” he says.
“The investment announced today will not address the core problem of ACT’s shortage of 3000 social housing dwellings. The addition of 60 new dwellings only addresses 2 per cent of this need, while also neglecting significant areas of demand for homes in the community.”
In the announcement, the ACT government boasted about it being the largest per capita investment in public housing in Australia, but Mr Rowe says the ACT has the highest level of public housing per capita because every other state has moved towards supporting community housing providers to deliver social housing, saying it’s a more cost-effective, high quality service and they can leverage their stock to grow.
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