QUEENSLAND and Victoria are each ending the year by hitting a social housing milestone.
The Queensland state government has commenced its 5,000th social home, with two new projects launching in Townsville, following the $3.9 billion investment into social and affordable housing across the state.
The developments will comprise 16 new homes including units and duplexes in two location in Rasmussen and will be constructed in partnership with First Nations community housing provider Yumba-Meta Limited.
The housing will assist First Nations women and children with applications on the social housing register.
“Our almost $4 billion for social and affordable housing is the largest concentrated investment in Queensland’s history,” said Leeanne Enoch, minister for communities and housing.
“This investment means we are housing more vulnerable Queenslanders sooner. In fact, we will have commenced 13,000 new social and affordable homes by 2027.”
The state’s Quickstarts Qld program also reached the commencement of its 1,000th social home, putting the program on track to reach its target of 3,000 commencements by 30 June 2025.
“The first year of Quickstarts Qld was focused on identifying areas of housing need in the state and suitable sites for construction of new social housing projects. We are forging ahead with our program of delivering more social housing across the state,” said Enoch.
The 1,000th home in the program will be in a social housing complex in Caloundra, comprising 16 one-bedroom units.
“This $7.79 million project will deliver housing to eligible people in the Sunshine Coast and support about 25 full time jobs once construction begins in April,” added Enoch.
Meanwhile the Victorian state government has now delivered more than 1,000 new homes across the state through its Building New Homes to Fight Homelessness program.
The new 1,068 homes have been built for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have been built in areas of high need, including Horsham–where the 1m000th home was built–Geelong, Ballarat, Maribyrnong, Wangaratta, Darebin and Moreland.
“This program has now delivered more than 1,000 new homes for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness,” said Colin Brooks, minister for housing.
“These homes have been built right across Victoria, helping break the cycle of homelessness and providing social housing to those who need it most, where they need it.”
The $469 million program was announced by the Andrews government in 2018, with construction starting in December 2019. The program is set to deliver more than 1,440 new homes and has since been rolled into the landmark Big Housing Build. All homes in the program have been built to be energy efficient with a minimum 7-star energy rating. The $5.3 billion Big Housing Build is now past the halfway point, with more than 7,400 social and affordable homes completed or underway across Victoria, including more than 1,700 properties that have been completed.
Australia is playing catch up when it comes to providing social housing. Recent data reveals the nation’s social housing stock has plummeted to 4.2% which is 2.9% below the OECD average. According to a new report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), over 270,000 Australians who were homeless or at risk of homelessness used government-funded specialist homelessness services (SHS) over 2021-22.
