No longer can we look the other direction

Josh Willie says Tasmania’s housing crisis has grown to tragic proportions

IT’S a clear, uncomfortably cold morning in Hobart. In an inner-city park, a man is stretched on a bench, trying to make the most of the weak sun’s warmth. His meagre belongings are scattered in plastic bags. His bedding is in a nearby bush.

Not long ago, this scene would have been more familiar in mainland cities but it is becoming more common in Hobart. The man in the park is one of 3500 Tasmanians people waiting months, even years, for housing assistance.

The average time to house priority applicants on that list has rocketed from 43 weeks in March, 2017, to 72 weeks by March this year.

There are probably more unidentified by government lists, those sleeping rough, couch surfing or calling their cars home, having given up on waiting. Most are depressed by Treasurer Peter Gutwein’s comments in his State Budget speech that Tasmania is on “the cusp of a golden age”.

The contrast between the Treasurer’s words and the man sleeping on the bench could not be starker.

Despite the Government being unable to point to significant economic reform of its own, Tasmania is enjoying an economy that has some financial indicators that are the best in more than a decade.

Our state is benefiting from better terms of trade, federal grant increases and better revenues supported by a global and domestic recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, widely acknowledged as the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. But inequality is widening. Labor has big concerns about our housing market.

Being unable to get a home has profound impact on families. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the landmark psychological theory published in 1943, lists food, water, warmth, rest, security and safety as basic needs.

Having a home is a human right and supports each of these needs. Achieving your potential cannot be reached without them.

As housing spokesman, I have heard terrible stories of how people’s lives disintegrate without secure housing — families living in Third World conditions or being forced apart or interstate because they have nowhere to live.

Many housing challenges have accelerated under the Hodgman Government through poor planning.

When housing supply has been relatively fixed for a period, shocks to demand — like population increases on the back of the government’s taxpayer-funded mainland advertising campaign — are absorbed through higher prices rather than more houses.

Long lead times in the planning process keep prices high in the upsurge of the housing cycle. Owners of capital assets see their wealth rise at a rapid pace, while workers without investments experience record low wage growth.

Many workers are trying to find secure accommodation in a private rental market with rocketing prices. The Liberals deregulated the share economy to create a free-for-all that limits access to private rental properties. What little regulation is left is not enforced.

His meagre belongings are scattered in plastic bags. His bedding is in a nearby bush.

The March quarterly update shows the Government failed to increase the public and social housing portfolio, with less than 40 of its target of 437 new homes completed over the past four years.

There is a critical shortage of skilled workers to build the almost 400 houses the Government promised to deliver by this time next year. Since 2014 there are 1800 less apprentices and trainees.

This Government has driven housing demand but failed to plan for the supply issues it created. We need political leadership to draw all the moving parts together. But at a state level my offers of bipartisanship are ignored.

Governments can no longer capitulate on this critical social and economic issue. Providing stable housing to disadvantaged Tasmanians saves in other areas like healthcare.

The man sleeping on the park bench, and another 3500 Tasmanians, deserve better than a government that looks the other way.