Public housing boost

Construction boom is key

A NEW social housing development for older Tasmanians in central Hobart was another example of the benefits being delivered by a boom in construction, Housing Minister Roger Jaensch says.

Inspecting progress on the nearcomplete Goulburn St development on Tuesday, Mr Jaensch said the 25units were a welcome addition to government housing stocks.

But he said there could never be a guarantee that all demand for public housing could be met.

The latest edition of the Human Services Dashboard reveals a 63.4week wait for priority applicants and 3594 applications on the waiting list.

“We’re building more homes for Tasmanians than ever before: as a state across the board and also in the social housing sector as well,” he said.

“We’re not in charge of all the circumstances that drive people to seek social housing, but we’re pulling every lever we can to get more properties like this one – and standalone houses and specialist youth accommodation – on the ground right across Tasmania at a rate and a pace that Tasmania has never had before.

“You would have seen that we’ve recorded in December, record building approvals for new housing in Tasmania, about one in seven of those was government-supported accommodation for people on low incomes our challenges to keep the pace up.

“We’ve got several hundred properties under construction right now: 444 to be developed, delivered, finished in the next 12 months, 1500 over the next three years and we’ll keep meeting demand and building new projects that meet the profile of demand on our social housing register.”

The first residents of the $11.7m unit block of flats will move in during March. Specialist aged-care housing provider Wintringham has been secured to run the block and will work with Housing Connect to allocate and welcome occupants from next month.