Canberra's public housing tenants owe $945,000 in unpaid rent, but Housing ACT is retrieving the debt, thanks in part to the Federal Government's $900 cash bonus.
ACT Housing and Community Services executive director Maureen Sheehan said debt levels had fallen from $1.1 million in March to $945,000 this week, the lowest owed in several years.
Ms Sheehan said many tenants who had been in arrears used the $900 from the Federal Government's recent stimulus package to pay off their debt.
''That just shows what a really responsible group of people we've got in public housing,'' Ms Sheehan said.
According to Housing figures from March, 975 of the 1538 tenants in arrears were less than a month behind, while 215 were more than three months behind and owed a combined $531,000.
Debt levels have fallen gradually in the past year. In June last year public housing tenants owed $1,245,929, while in 2005 and 2006 tenants owed $1,264,609 and $1,197,073 respectively.
Ms Sheehan said the gradual erosion of the debt could be attributed to a concerted effort to bring it down. This involved getting more tenants in arrears to enter into repayment agreements whereby they repaid small amounts each week on top of the rent.
''For about the last three years we've had as a target that if people are $500 or more in debt, we're trying to get 90 per cent of those people on to repayment agreements.''
Full report in today's Canberra Times
Email a friend