Do we need more public housing?
Australia is currently experiencing a dire housing shortage and yet there are no moves by any level of government to increase the stock of public housing, in fact, in Victoria they are selling it off to private organisations.
Families in country areas are living in tents due to the lack of affordable housing.
There are a few problems with handing public housing to private operators. First, once the land is sold, it doesn’t come back (usually) so we are pouring public money into private hands.
Second, those private hands get a double dip of our money through the federal government’s rent assistance payment, which is an extra payment for people on certain pensions who rent. We wouldn’t need this if the government owned public housing.
And if governments owned housing they could set rents at an affordable amount, easing housing stress for the disadvantaged.
Instead, government at all levels seems intent on putting it in the ‘too hard’ basket.
My local council sold two social housing projects off to developers and then has the gall to publicly call out the state government for not providing enough public housing!
Do you think there should be more public housing?
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