The number of public housing properties in the ACT has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, while the average turnaround time for vacant dwellings has blown out to the second longest in Australia.
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The ACT has 10,744 public housing properties, data from the Productivity Commission's annual reports on government services shows.
The number of properties peaked in 2018 when the territory had 11,181 dwellings, with a downward trend since.
It took more than 89 days on average for the ACT government to turnaround vacant public housing for new tenants in 2021-22, growing from just under 50 days in 2020-21.
The data also showed priority public housing applicants wait an average of 337 days before they are allocated a home, and the standard public housing wait list has grown to almost five years.
ACT Council of Social Service interim chief executive Gemma Killen said housing was the biggest cost of living pressure for low-income households in the ACT, which needed to be urgently addressed.
"It is alarming and unacceptable that thousands of ACT residents are experiencing severe financial and emotional stress due to the ACT government's lack of responsive action on housing availability and affordability," Dr Killen said.
The opposition's spokesman on housing, Mark Parton, said the government's policies on housing had created a "perfect storm" to worsen housing affordability and the rental crisis.
"They're not releasing enough detached dwellings which drives up the price of every form of dwelling," Mr Parton said.
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ACT Housing Minister Yvette Berry last year said public housing stock in the territory is unlikely to have a notable increase for another two years.
"A whole range of things have to match up together to get new houses built and to get people into homes. You have to move people from homes, we have to demolish those homes, we have to sell those homes and we have to build new homes," Ms Berry said in November.
"All that doesn't happen in a nice straight line it is a bumpy line."
Ms Berry has previously pointed to an increase in the number of community housing dwellings in the ACT when faced with criticism for the declines in public housing stock despite Canberra's growing population.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
