The Malinauskas Labor Government is delivering a boost of $37.1 million to accelerate the delivery of necessary maintenance and upgrades on vacant SA Housing Trust properties.
The funding boost comes as a Federal Government report reveals South Australia leads the nation in providing more social housing, compared to the number of residential homes across the State.
The Productivity Commission Report on Government Services (RoGS) Social Housing report has shown South Australia’s provision of community and public housing has increased from 45,225 at June 2023 to 45,870 in June 2024.
At 555 social housing dwellings per 10,000 residential dwellings, the share of social housing of all residential dwellings is higher than the national average of around 390 per dwelling, or a 44 per cent better provision of social housing in the South Australian population, compared to nationally.
Social housing comprises community housing, run by Community Housing Providers, and public housing, run by the SA Housing Trust. In coming years, a State Government building investment program will build more than 1000 new public housing dwellings.
The Malinauskas Labor Government is focusing on decreasing the State’s vacancy rate – the funding, announced today, targeting homes that require maintenance prior to being tenanted.
FOI documents released by the South Australian Housing Trust to the State Opposition highlight common complaints over maintenance include derelict fencing, black mould complaints, termite inspections along with delays to standard maintenance of hot water systems and scheduled upgrades to kitchens and bathrooms.
The State Government is providing the additional $37.1 million over five years to the Trust’s maintenance budget from 2024-25, taking the annual maintenance budget to around $130 million.
The Trust will implement a new way of allocating properties where tenants move into a property as soon as it is safe, clean and functional, but may require minor maintenance works or upgrades to be undertaken, while the property is tenanted.
An increased volume of directly contracted works related to vacancy maintenance will also be undertaken by the Trust. It is anticipated that this initiative will support small business in South Australia and unlock additional trade capacity from new suppliers through tenders for major upgrade works.
These initiatives are in response to the Housing Trust Maintenance Contracts Review recently undertaken. The government has received that review and is currently assessing its options with a response due to be released early next month.
Current arrangements commenced with a tender process launched by the former Marshall Liberal Government and former Minister for Human Services, Michelle Lensink MLC. Following concerning reports regarding the delivery of maintenance works, the Malinauskas Government launched a review into the maintenance contract.
In coming years, the State Government’s building investment program will build more than 1000 new public housing dwellings. Overall, there has already been an increase of 645 social housing dwellings, compared to the last RoGS report.
In other performance indicators South Australia continued to lead with the lowest proportion of overcrowded households for the fifteenth consecutive year at 2.5 per cent (remote housing excluded), compared to a 4.7 per cent national average.
Quotes
Attributable to Nick Champion
Social housing is growing in South Australia. Part of this significant investment and ambitious building program means there are more demolitions of older properties to make way for new public homes.
We are investing in vacancy maintenance and have launched a thorough review into our maintenance operations.
We have an ageing stock – its average age is 44 years – which requires constant upgrades and repairs so for the first time in a generation the Malinauskas Labor Government is improving the quality and quantity of public housing in this state.
The Housing Trust has been tasked with exploring a new model to redress the challenges we face with respect to our public housing vacancy rates.
This funding is an important first step to begin tackling the deficiencies within our maintenance program.
