Fast housing fix weeks away

IT will be weeks before immediate solutions to the state’s housing crisis are implemented, after the urgent housing summit endorsed longer-term policies but held back on agreeing to solutions that would provide instant relief to Tasmanian families sleeping rough.

Speaking after the housing summit convened by the government yesterday, Treasurer Peter Gutwein said the issue at the centre of the crisis was a lack of housing supply.

The summit was called last week after revelations in February that working families had been forced to seek shelter at the Hobart Showground.

”We simply need more houses,” Mr Gutwein said.

“What we discussed today were measures that would increase the supply of housing stock, which at the same time would have a dampening effect on some of the price increases that we’re seeing.”

Representatives from 34 peak bodies and key stakeholders attended the threehour summit in Hobart, agreeing to endorse a number of strategies to increase affordable housing.

Community sector representatives were keen to stress that the summit was merely a first step in the process to make immediate, short-term, medium-term and long-term changes to solve the crisis.

TASCOSS chief executive Kym Goodes said solutions proposed to deal with the immediate crisis would be considered over the next two or three weeks before being endorsed.

She said the immediacy of the housing crisis meant quick solutions were needed, but it was important to ensure more problems would not be created.

“We’ve got to find the right balance between protecting long-term consequences and long-term disadvantaged risks versus being able to get people out of tents and into accommodation,” Ms Goodes said.

“Rather than naming up some of those options as viable options in the next week, we want to take two or three weeks to consider those options and make sure they are appropriate and we’re not going to put people into further risk or into further harm in the long term.”

Shelter Tasmania executive officer Pattie Chugg said the summit was “very much a first step,” and more work needed to be done.

“There’s some definite actions out of this meeting today that we’re happy with, but we know it’s going to be an ongoing issue,” Ms Chugg said.

Ms Chugg said Shelter Tasmania hoped to see an on- going dialogue to ensure the momentum of the summit was carried forward.

“In a three-hour meeting today we cannot solve all the issues,” she said.

Premier Will Hodgman announced the summit last week, saying no Tasmanian should be living in a tent.

Yesterday he said hundreds of ideas and concepts were presented at the meeting, and the Government would work through them.

“There will be a process by which the key stakeholders and the Government will work very closely, and that includes also local government and potentially also federal government, to move on critical long-term opportunities,” Mr Hodgman said.

“With respect to the immediacy facing people who are homeless or suffering severe housing stress, it is no comfort to them of course, but this is a national issue as well.

“It’s not something that has suddenly appeared unexpectedly in Tasmania, but it has been amplified due to a range of factors that are impacting on the shortage of supply.”