Promises, promises: Premier vows to fund 500 social homes over next two years
The Palaszczuk government will dedicate more than $320 million for 500 social homes when it hands down the Queensland budget, as the state continues to grapple with the housing shortage.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the government was āpulling every lever possibleā to ensure Queenslanders had a roof over their head.
āWe recognise that this is a big issue out there for families,ā she told reporters in Brisbane on Monday.
āWe also know that thousands of people continue to move to Queensland, and that is putting additional pressure on our housing markets up right across the state, even in regional Queensland.ā
The social housing is expected to be delivered by mid-2025.
The $322m funding in Tuesdayās state budget follows a $64m funding increase for emergency housing in inner Brisbane and a $10m pledge to turn the Pinkenba quarantine facility into emergency accommodation.
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Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said every Queenslander deserved a roof over their head.
She acknowledged the heat in the housing market and the difficulty in getting construction projects off the ground because of supply constraints and labour shortages, ābut the money is thereā.
āItās available and weāll be doing everything we can to get those houses up off the ground as quickly as possible,ā she told reporters.
The government has been under pressure over the shortage of social and affordable housing, with a Productivity Commission report in January saying the state spent the least per capita on social housing in Australia.
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The state opposition said the funding was the latest in a long list of promises the government had failed to deliver on time or at all.
āIn 2017, the Palaszczuk government promised to build 2972 social houses over five years, but a scathing auditor generalās report found one in five of these homes werenāt built,ā LNP housing spokesman Tim Mander said in a statement.
Social service peak body QCOSS welcomed the extra housing but said it was not nearly enough.
āThe Palaszczuk government says it has built on average more than 10 homes per week since it came into power ā but it has been spending less than any other state per capita on social housing,ā CEO Aimee McVeigh said in a statement.
āIt needs to build more than 50 social and affordable homes a week to keep up with demand.
āWe need at least 2700 extra social homes annually, and more than 6000 social and affordable new homes each year across Queensland, on top of what has already been promised, not an extra 500.
āOn top of that, we need an extra 5000 social and affordable homes committed to by the federal government if we are to keep pace with need and demand.ā
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