For the first time, The Courier-Mail can reveal
the true picture of the state’s growing battle against
homelessness.

There are 69,180 people, roughly the population of Rockhampton,
waiting months and years for a roof over their heads.

That is more than double the Housing Department’s official wait
list of 31,315 – a tally that counts only actual applications, not
how many people are involved in each.

The State Opposition condemned the count as a “slick political
trick” to “brush the problem under the carpet”.

Meanwhile, more than 7100 of the state’s 54,468 social housing
properties are not fully utilised. About 680 houses are vacant,
there are 5617 properties with three bedrooms or more tenanted by
singles, and a further 816 residences are occupied by households
earning more than the $ 80,000 threshold.

Acting Housing Minister Simon Finn defended social housing
management, saying Queensland’s vacancy rate was well below
national averages.

He said the Bligh Government had ploughed $ 500 million into social
housing that, coupled with $ 1.16 billion in federal cash, had built
5200 homes in the past three years, with another 1485 under
construction this financial year.

While those with greatest need are processed first, the average
waiting time is 11 months. Some wait much longer, living with
family and friends, in cars or crisis housing.

The figures show families are the most affected, with 49,867
parents and children desperate for government-subsidised housing as
the cost of private rentals and cost of living soar.

Another 14,863 singles need help. Couples appear to cope best as
there are only 4450 people in a relationship on the waiting list.

Demand will only worsen in coming years as the population ages,
food and fuel costs soar and rent continues to spiral upwards, a
report released late last month found.

The National Housing Supply Council report said Queensland had the
second-largest housing shortfall in Australia and “despite the
recent surge in investment … social housing supply lags well behind
demand”.

More than 5500 people joined the wait list in the past year, an
average 460 a month.

Queensland Council of Social Service president Karyn Walsh said
more people needed help as sections of the economy flagged, leaving
casual workers without a regular wage.

Communities Department director-general Linda Apelt said most empty
properties were experiencing “normal turnover” although some were
in low-demand areas or were being refurbished.

She said some singles living in houses with three or more bedrooms
also had valid reasons, such as shared access to children or
needing space to store disability equipment.

But she said the Government was targeting under-occupancy. Letters
were sent in September to 450 singles and couples living in
four-bedroom homes asking them to justify why they need the extra
space.

Acting Opposition housing spokesman Ted Malone accused the Bligh
Government of presiding over major cost-of-living increases and
said the LNP, if elected, would introduce policies to better share
the state’s mining wealth.

One mum’s story:

JODY
Hamilton tries each day to block out the awful reality that
her family is homeless, instead putting on a brave face for her
two young boys.

The single mother has been listed as “highest priority” by public
housing authorities for the past 12 months but still she waits.

“If I concentrate on it, I’d be a mess and I can’t do that to my
kids,” she said.

Ms Hamilton fell into hardship not long after moving from

Darwin to
Brisbane for medical reasons.

After moving out of her sister’s loungeroom, Ms Hamilton and her
two sons – Brendan, 10 and Cayden, 5 – found short-term emergency
accommodation with UnitingCare Community in
Virginia, on Brisbane’s northside – and that was seven months
ago.

“They’re not going to kick me out on the street because they know
I’ve got nowhere else,” she said.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can’t unpack anything so we
never feel settled. We could get moved at any time. It’s just not
fair.”

Mission Australia social advocacy general manager Eleri
Morgan-Thomas said the lack of available public housing was
increasingly forcing people into crisis accommodation.

That created a domino effect, with more and more people being
turned away from emergency housing, she said.

Property Management Brisbane