See also Family stuck on rental treadmillSoaring rental costs and the global financial crisis have fuelled a 30 per cent growth in applications for public housing in Canberra in the past financial year.
The waiting list for government housing in the territory has blown out by nearly 50 per cent as more families find themselves locked out of Canberra's rental market the most expensive of any Australian capital city.
The ACT Government accepted applications from more than 2500 Canberra families and individuals forced out of the capital's spiralling rental market in the past financial year, up from about 1900 in the previous 12 months.
But in the same period, the total number of public housing units declined by nearly 70.
The figures do not tell the whole story of unmet housing needs in Canberra because they do not include those applicants who failed to make the stringent income tests to qualify for a government dwelling.
The Department of Housing and Community Services insists it is coping with the soaring demand but concedes the territory would be ''battling'' without the Federal Government's injection of financial stimulus funding for public housing.
The public housing waiting list stood at 1589 applications at the end of the 2008-09 financial year, up from 1098 the previous year.
The figures emerged yesterday as the Australian Bureau of Statistics published research showing that Canberra had the highest private rents of any capital city, averaging $337 a week, more expensive than Sydney where the average private rental costs about $327.
Housing and Community Services executive director Maureen Sheehan said the crisis was being compounded by the unwillingness of public housing tenants, in uncertain times, to move into home ownership or the private rental market.
''More people are applying and we're quite certain that the global financial crisis is having a big impact on that,'' Ms Sheehan said.
''It impacts with people losing their private accommodation and then because of the costs of rental in the private sector, they come and apply for public housing.
''We're seeing fewer people leaving public housing, again because of the price of private rentals.''
Ms Sheehan said her department had housed 642 new applicants during the past financial year and had moved another 242 residents within the public housing system.
She said the Federal Government stimulus package which will see $87million spent on 350 new social housing units by December 2010 would help clear the waiting list.
''We'll see some of them [housing units] on June 30, 2010, and the rest of them online by, maybe December 2010,'' Ms Sheehan said.
But she said the territory would have been in trouble if not for the stimulus spending.
''We'd really be battling, but not just us, all state housing authorities would be battling,'' Ms Sheehan said.
The ACT's public housing stocks currently make up about 8.6 per cent of the total, according to the Government, compared with the national average of about 5 per cent.
Ms Sheehan said the ACT was outperforming other states and territories in placing public tenants in units.
''In terms of the number of properties we have which is about 11,500 and the size of the waiting list, you've got the best chance in Australia of being housed in a reasonable period of time,'' Ms Sheehan said.
In the 2008-09 financial year, the number of public housing units dropped from 1236 to 1168.
''The number of dwellings we have will always vary slightly depending on what we buy and what we sell,'' Ms Sheehan said.
''Last year we sold Fraser Court so that was 100 units off our books but we got $25 million and over the next year we'll spend that money constructing new units.''
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