FAMILY and Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton has a monumental task in trying to improve public housing in NSW, a job made more difficult by factors beyond the minister’s and even the State Government’s control.
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Her department held a forum in Orange on Wednesday, one of 22 across the state to give politicians and bureaucrats an opportunity to hear from service providers and tenants.
Ministerial staff would have heard a familiar chorus from workers in the industry as to the root cause of long waiting lists for what in many cases is substandard accommodation.
The answer is ultimately poverty as a result of unemployment.
In western NSW there are some 4500 public or social housing dwellings and all but about six percent are occupied by people on welfare payments.
If many of those people are long term unemployed it is not difficult to see why occupancy of social housing stock doesn’t roll over quickly enough to keep pace with new clients joining waiting lists.
The minister did not visit Orange but if she wanted to get a snapshot of life in the most disadvantaged public housing areas in this city she could come and spend an evening on the Vinnies food van.
There Minister Upton would meet young barefoot children from families with intergenerational unemployment, lining up for sandwiches and drinks.
But there will be no substantial change unless social housing becomes a stepping stone for tenants rather than a destination.
That requires helping tenants out of chronic unemployment into jobs and affordable housing.
The role and cost of vocational training through TAFE and other providers becomes a factor, as does affordable housing and federal tax policies like the sacred cow of negative gearing which distorts the housing market in favour of investors battling to increase their property portfolio.
Ms Upton needs help tackling a national problem.