The Guardian highlights the problems with NSW Public Housing policy. We discuss the reasons why this is happening.
The New South Wales government has sold off $3bn worth of social housing during its decade in power, while failing to meet its own targets for new properties.
New figures released through parliament this week show that since it was first elected in 2011, the Coalition has sold off 4,205 social housing properties across the state.
The sales have added about $3.5bn to the government’s coffers over the same period.
But while the government said all of those funds were used to prove “more, and better” social housing stock, data for new social housing constructions reveal the government has fallen well behind its own targets for new dwellings.
In 2016, the Coalition pledged to build 23,000 new social housing dwellings in the next decade as part of its Future Directions housing strategy. It committed to funding new social housing construction through the $22bn Communities Plus program.
But eight years on, with more than 50,000 people on the social housing wait list in the state, the Communities Plus program has achieved only 10% of that goal.
