Properties lie trashed and empty while more than 3000 people across the ACT wait more than four years for help from Housing ACT. What’s gone wrong with social housing? NICK OVERALL reports…

DESPITE more than 3000 people across the ACT waiting for a place to live, the average wait time for social housing is now more than four years.

According to damning figures from the Productivity Commission, Canberra has less public housing than it did a decade ago.

The 2022 “Report on Government Services” reveals that as of June 2021, there were 10,859 public housing dwellings in the ACT. That’s below the number in 2012 (10,950) and the peak in 2018 (11,181).

Despite this, there are public housing properties across the territory lying unoccupied, untended or in disrepair.

Scott, a resident of a public housing complex in Wright, in January revealed to “CityNews” that a unit in the complex he was living in had been left trashed, vacant and unlocked for months despite him contacting Housing ACT about the issue in October.

Although locksmiths installed locks on the apartment after “CityNews” published Scott’s story, the unit is still vacant.

After Scott went public, people reached out with similar stories and experiences.

One resident, living in a housing complex in Braddon, said he’d watched his complex gradually deteriorate for three years. Now, he says squatters are using one of the ground-floor units, which has been empty and trashed for three months.

Another resident believed a housing property he lived nearby had been abandoned for more than two years.

The dwelling in Giralang seems to lie empty, with overgrown gardens out the front and back and seemingly no sign of people living inside.

Housing ACT would not confirm whether or not the property is abandoned.

In the last ACT Budget, the government promised $100 million to boost Canberra’s public housing, which has widely been described as in “crisis”. This was on top of about $400 million in Budget promises made throughout the past decade.

Despite this, from 2017 to June 2021, there was a 117 per cent increase in “greatest needs” housing applicants and wait lists continue to grow.

One housing resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was on the waiting lists for years despite her attempts to escape an abusive situation.

“I had to go through several organisations to get their help before Housing would even engage with me. CatholicCare was a lifesaver and the only reason I got housed in the end was because of them,” she said.

“Housing never would have even bothered to look at me twice if [CatholicCare] hadn’t gotten involved.”

The resident, who has hearing issues, said she felt there was no urgency from Housing to help her situation despite her trying to escape an abusive situation.

“They stonewalled and made things harder than they needed to be,” she said.

“As I am unable to do phone calls, it was near impossible to even communicate with them at all.”

While she’s now finally been given a place to live, the resident says she still feels “unsafe” in her current conditions.

“The complex itself was lovely, but Housing refuses to maintain the upkeep,” she says.

“Housing refuses to enforce the lease agreement. We have other tenants using the premises for illegal means, dumping garbage everywhere, vandalism. Housing refuses to look into it let alone do anything about it.” 

The resident said the situation has got to a point where her and others living in the complex are fearful for their health and safety.

“The place is never cleaned. There are various maintenance issues. You literally have to spend months raising the same issue with Housing and in the end it is usually resolved only because another tenant fixes it.”

“I get that there’s limited accommodation available and that it’s dependent on a lot of factors. What I find truly atrocious is when they have the accommodation and it’s left vacant for months or years when someone could actually have been using it.”

Another Housing resident that reached out, who also wished to remain anonymous, said they had been trying to get an issue addressed for more than two years but had only received “empty promises that it would be looked into”.

The person said they had major concerns for the safety of their mentally ill brother who lives in a housing dual occupancy property and who has been experiencing security issues that were making him feel unsafe.

Despite calling for an investigation or some kind of help from Housing for more than two years, the person said their brother had not seen any investigation into his issue.

These accounts and the statistics in the Productivity Commission’s report raise the question, where are the hundreds of millions promised by the government going?

It’s a question that the CEO of the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) Emma Campbell is also asking.

“ACTCOSS welcomed investments in housing announced in the most recent ACT Budget, but the failure to deliver meaningful outcomes for Canberrans is frustrating,” she said.

“The ACT Housing Strategy has been in place for four years, yet we see growing numbers of Canberrans experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.”

The consensus between the people I spoke with for this story, including even more whose words aren’t published here, was unanimous. While it may be redundant to blame any one person in an issue as complex as this, it is clear the ACT Housing system itself is in urgent need of an overhaul.

Nick@citynews.com.au