Twenty two-bedroom units will be built on the corner of Hambidge and Goldstein Crescents in Chisholm, next to Pines Tennis Club and Caroline Chisholm School. Work on the single-storey units is to start this year, and be ready for tenants in 2016.

Twenty-five units are slated for 196 Clive Steele Avenue, in Monash, Tuggeranong, near the intersection with Isabella Drive, also to be completed next year.

One early development has already sparked opposition, with strong concern from Nicholls residents about a plan for 14 units next to Gold Creek School in Gungahlin.

In Coombs, a new suburb in the Molonglo Valley, the plan is for 144 public housing dwellings on six blocks. Most are in clusters of 24 dwellings per block, in one to three-storey developments, with construction to be completed late next year.

A similar plan is in the pipeline for Amaroo, where 26 units will be built in one to three-storey developments on Mornington Street.

The government has written to nearby residents for the Monash and Chisholm developments, telling them: "The dwellings will be constructed to adaptable standards, which mean that they will have a range of features such as wider doorways and corridors and are capable of being easily modified to meet the changing needs of the tenants and support ageing in place. The site is well suited for supportive housing being very close (the Monash letter says "relatively close") to shops and the bus service along Goldstein Avenue ("Clive Steel Avenue" in the Monash letter)."

In estimates hearings this week, Liberal housing spokeswoman Nicole Lawder said residents of the Owen flats in Northbourne Avenue had received conflicting dates for moving out, being told variously they would go by the end of the year and there was no timetable.

"Can you understand why tenants are feeling disempowered, disconcerted and uncertain?" she asked Housing Minister Yvette Berry, who responded that it was unlikely new housing would be completed until early 2016 at best, and the government was ensuring tenants were kept up to date.

Ms Lawder also questioned whether tenants from the 1,288 flats would be given priority over the 2,300 on the public housing waiting list. Officials said housing would be allocated according to need.

"Essentially, we will make the offer on that basis – on suitability and on the basis of what's the right outcome for those individuals," housing director David Matthews said. "But saying that, we do have a timeframe in which we want to relocate our tenants and we'll have to make sure that we do our best to meet that."