PUBLIC housing tenants may pay higher rents and stock could be sold off in the wake of a damning report into the management of public housing.
The Victorian Auditor-General’s Access to Public Housing report found a disturbing lack of planning and a system close to collapse with about 10,000 properties almost obsolete.
About 127,000 people live in 65,000 public housing dwellings across Victoria and a further 38,000 are on a waiting list.
The report, tabled in Parliament last Wednesday, is a blow for Brimbank’s plans to improve crisis and emergency accommodation and bad news for almost 4000 locals on the waiting list.
Auditor-General Des Pearson found the public housing situation was dire.
The report slammed the housing division of the Human Services Department for reducing acquisitions and preventive maintenance at the expense of longer-term strategies. These problems, it said, had been known about since 2006. “The division now has an estimated 10,000 properties, 14per cent of the portfolio, nearing obsolescence and a significant maintenance liability.”
Housing Minister Wendy Lovell said Labor had ignored the problems for more than a decade. She flagged possible changes such as higher rents for tenants, currently paying no more than 25per cent of their income. The government may also rely on charities stepping in to fill the gaps.
Brimbank Council’s general manager of city development, Stephen Sully, said only 2.2per cent of housing in Brimbank was public housing, which was low compared with other areas.
“Part of the future discussions with the office of housing will be focused on retention and improvement to existing social housing stock,” he said. The council’s draft housing strategy seeks social housing as part of a mix with private housing in new residential developments.
