Courier Mail 05/01/2012: Public housing too big for poor families, according to Queensland Government

Koren Helbig 

A GLUT of three-bedroom homes is hampering efforts to tackle Queensland's growing public housing waiting list, the State Government claims.

Communities Department director-general Linda Apelt said too many large homes were added to the state's stock after World War II. Some were being upgraded or bulldozed to meet changing demographics and house more people.

Figures released to The Courier-Mail show almost half the 680 public houses currently sitting empty are three-bedders.

Another 5617 single people are living in houses with three bedrooms or more. That number grew by 101 from October to November.

There are 14,863 singles languishing on the housing waiting list, 636 more applications than in the family category.

"A disproportionate amount of three-bedroom homes were built by the Housing Commission in the years after 1945," Ms Apelt said.

"These homes have been progressively upgraded and, where appropriate, demolished to allow the building of more one and two-bedroom units."

Her comments came after The Courier-Mail yesterday revealed almost 70,000 Queenslanders were waiting for a roof over their heads - more than double the Housing Department's official wait list of 31,315.

That tally counts only applications, not how many people are involved in each one.

Queensland Shelter operations manager Kate Cowmeadow said there was a lag in providing suitable housing as the demographics of people needing help changed.

She said singles waiting for government-funded housing were often elderly or disabled, with those on unemployment benefits particularly struggling to make ends meet.

"Income support for single people on Newstart allowances is lower than any other type of benefit - it's lower than disability benefits and the aged pension, which in itself is very little money to live on."

Ms Cowmeadow welcomed moves to "lift yield" by redeveloping existing housing stock.

"So they might take an old three-bedroom house that's had it's useful life and redevelop the site into multiple dwellings, which means that more people can be housed," she said.

Acting Housing Minister Simon Finn said "decades of non-investment" by the Bjelke-Petersen Government had compounded the state's housing problem.

"We are building more one and two-bedroom units that allow for transfer from under-occupied homes and have recently begun under-occupancy reviews of four-bedroom homes, with reviews for three-bedroom homes to follow," he said.