Social Housing in Barwon

We may not think of homelessness being a problem in the Barwon electorate, when we think of a person being homeless our minds turn to rough sleepers in the City.

But, rough sleepers are only a small percentage of the homelessness population in Australia.

Homelessness and the demand for social housing is one of the areas my team have been working to understand as part of our research into Barwon.

The NSW Government is currently spending millions of dollars to build new social housing, and to upgrade addition-housing stock. My job is to make sure Barwon gets its fair share of this investment.

Research released in late July from Homelessness Australia, showed that for the Federal Electorate of Parkes (which overlays Barwon) there are over 700 people that are homeless.

Looking at the guide to waiting times for social housing released by Family and Community Services there are a number of areas in Barwon that require urgent attention from the NSW Government. You must also keep in mind that these numbers show only the people that have applied for housing, so the numbers could be a lot higher.

I’ve recently started asking questions of the Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services including:

3588 - SOCIAL HOUSING BROKEN HILL WAIT TIMES

Butler, Roy to the Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services

Considering that data from the Department of Communities and Justice shows that the expected social housing wait time in allocation zone SO95 Broken Hill is up to two years for a one-bedroom property and anywhere from two to five years for multi-room dwellings, and that there are over 80 people on the waitlist for housing in S095, what actions is the Government taking to address this issue in Broken Hill?

Question asked on 28 July 2020 (session 57-1) and printed in Questions & Answers Paper No. 70