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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-05 Daily Xml
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HOUSING SA

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Minister for Families and Communities a question about Housing SA.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: On page 86 the housing trust annual report from 2006-07 notes that the staffing cost there totalled $42.8 million. The housing trust, as it was then called, has approximately one FTE staff member for each 55 dwellings it manages. The average cost per staff member is some $53,581 per annum. By comparison, Lutheran Community Housing also has one FTE staff member per 55 dwellings but at an average cost of just $37,655 per annum, or approximately 70 per cent of the housing trust's cost. It appears that community housing providers can do the same job for less cost.

Housing SA has a dilemma. The housing trust annual report from 2006-07 notes that the interest cost to it was $33.8 million on its $474 million debt. The organisation has placed great emphasis on reducing this cost and is currently disposing of 18 per cent of its stock—some 8,000 houses—to reduce the debt. To deal with the reduced stock, the housing trust has redefined its eligibility criteria and, after the eligibility criteria were redefined, demand has fallen from 13,892 applicants for housing in 1997 to just 6,184 applications in 2007.

The housing trust has seen a 55 per cent decrease in demand since 1997, which has exceeded the 30 per cent decline in supply since 1992. As at June 2007, the housing trust held some 22,339 applications for its 44,220 houses, or approximately half an application for each of its existing houses. In contrast, Lutheran Housing had some 1,300 applications for the 456 houses it manages, or approximately 2.8 applications per house. My questions to the minister are:

1. Is Housing SA now actively discouraging new applicants for public housing?

2. If this is the case, why should state and commonwealth funds not also be structured to bypass Housing SA where possible and be provided directly to the community housing organisations that appear to operate more efficiently at less cost?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (14:42): I will refer those questions to the Minister for Housing in another place and bring back a response.

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