The ACT's community housing stock grew by just 12 dwellings in one year, a new report has shown, as the territory lagged behind an emerging national trend in the provision of housing options for low-income earners.
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The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released its latest annual housing assistance report, providing detailed data on Australians living in social housing.
It's release came as new Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed that Canberra's poorest were spending 35 per cent of their income on housing, the highest proportion in the nation.
The institute's report found the territory's total social housing stock, including public and community housing, grew from 11,960 to 12,076 between June 2017 and June 2018.
The number of community housing dwellings increased from 883 to 895 over that period - an increase of just 1.2 per cent.
It follows a period of significant growth in the sector from 2014 to 2017, during which the number of community housing dwellings grew by 44 per cent.
The report again showed that public housing accounted for the overwhelming majority of the ACT's social housing dwellings.
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At the most recent count, community housing makes up just 7.4 per cent of the ACT's total stock. Public housing makes up the remaining 92.6 per cent.
In comparison, community housing accounts for about one fifth of all social dwellings nationwide, with that proportion growing each year.
"The number of community housing dwellings more than doubled between 2008-09 and 2017-18 from 39,800 to 87,800, partly due to the transfer of ownership or management of public housing dwellings to community organisations," a spokesman for the institute, Matthew James, said.
The institute's latest report, published on Thursday, also found that almost one in five public housing dwellings in the ACT were "under-utilised", meaning it has at least two rooms more than the household requires.
It ranked beyond only South Australia on that metric, where more than a quarter of houses are "under-utilised".
At the other end of spectrum, about 4 per cent of the ACT's public housing dwellings were considered to be overcrowded - the third highest proportion in the nation.
A spokeswoman for Housing Minister Yvette Berry said where public housing in the ACT traditionally catered to public servants, the majority of applicants were now individuals or single parents raising families.
That meant some older stock did not suit the needs of tenants, resulting in situations of overcrowding or underutilisation, she said.
The government's $100 million public housing renewal program, announced last year, would include replacement of older three bedroom homes with more two and four-bedroom dwellings that better suit the needs of tenants.
The spokeswoman said the government "continued to look at opportunities to increase community housing in the territory".
She highlighted the HomeGround Real Estate Canberra scheme, through which property owners could have land tax waived when offering rental properties at 75 per cent of market rate.