Today’s Courier-Mail report on problems with the management of Queensland’s social housing stock makes me wonder if there is a better way for the Government to assist poor households (70,000 on housing wait list):

There are 69,180 people, roughly the population of Rockhampton, waiting months and years for a roof over their heads. That is more than double the Housing Department’s official wait list of 31,315 – a tally that counts only actual applications, not how many people are involved in each…

…Meanwhile, more than 7100 of the state’s 54,468 social housing properties are not fully utilised. About 680 houses are vacant, there are 5617 properties with three bedrooms or more tenanted by singles, and a further 816 residences are occupied by households earning more than the $80,000 threshold.

At least since the late 1990s it’s been a well-understood principle that governments can be a purchaser of services but they don’t necessarily have to be the provider. While there will exist a legacy public housing stock that will need to be managed and eventually sold off, the Government should cease investing in new social housing and simply pay poor households who need assistance in finding housing instead.

Ideally the State Government would coordinate with the Commonwealth so this could be in the form of a boost in rent assistance already offered by Centrelink. The Government should aim to assist as many households experiencing difficulties keeping a roof over their heads as possible. Currently it isn’t assisting the tens of thousands of households on the waiting list, but is assisting at least 816 households earning above $80,000 p.a. which probably don’t need social housing any more.