From the Anti-Poverty Network – South Australia Facebook

Decades of public housing being sold off (20,000 homes sold off since 2000), and existing stock being neglected, has absolutely lowered the bar.

We are obviously glad the current State Government will be reversing the previous State Government’s decision to sell off 580 homes.

But my God, what a long way to go.

So, 564 extra public homes by 2026 (which is 89 more, than SA’s Labor’s election commitment). There are over 15,000 people on the public housing waiting list, and over 3,000, on Category 1.

Those extra public homes are roughly 3.5 percent of the current waiting list (and how many people, despite desperate need, are not even on the waiting list???).

564 extra public homes, over 3 years. About 190 new public homes, per year. Or 4 new public homes, per week.

But it is only a fraction of how many new houses are built, overall.

There are roughly 13,000 new homes built every year in this state. Only the tiniest fraction of these are public housing. Less than 2 percent.

The proportion of housing that is publicly-owned has been declining for decades, and this latest announcement will not halt this trend.

We need to start raising our expectations, and fight for what we truly need to deal with our out-of-control, life-destroying housing market: a huge public housing sector, not something tiny and peripheral.

The kind of massive, very-accessible public housing sector that our parents and grandparents benefited from.

And healthy public homes, not shoddy, poor-quality public housing.

That is what we need.