The NSW Government has finally released the updated NSW Housing Register waiting list data for 2022 and it clearly demonstrates the deepening crisis in social and affordable housing across the state.
 
The overall number of people waiting on the Housing Register for a place to call home has increased from 49,928 in 2021 to 51,031 in 2022. Alarmingly, the number of Priority Applicants – that is people at particular risk such as women and children leaving domestic violence or those facing imminent homelessness – has increased from 5,801 to 6,519 – a 12% increase in one year.
 
Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson said: “These aren’t just figures, these are families. These are older people who cannot find affordable rentals on the pension and rely on social housing for a place to call home. These are women and children who have taken the powerful step to leave a violent home and are living in a car until a social housing place becomes available. These aren’t numbers, they are people, and the NSW Government is failing them.”
 
“At a time when more and more people are putting their hand up for help with housing, the number of social and affordable houses available is going backwards because of the outrageous privatisation addiction of the NSW Government. Between 2017-2021 the NSW Government sold or removed over 3000 properties, over 1000 more than it completed. No wonder the number of people desperately waiting has spiked, again. 
 
Ms Jackson added: “The cynical and sneaky move by the NSW Government to release this data over the New Year break is a deliberate attempt to bury it, to hope no one notices. They are trying to hide these figures because they clearly demonstrate their comprehensive failure to support to vulnerable people in finding a place to live.”
 
Whilst the NSW Government is updating its website with the latest embarrassing figures over the New Year, Labor has already announced policies to make housing more affordable and accessible for the people of NSW:
 

• Protecting tenants from unfair evictions by requiring them to be given a lawful reason for terminating a lease.
• Banning the practice of secret rent-bidding, which pits tenants against each other in a bidding war.
• Creating a Rental Commissioner and implementing a Portable Bond Scheme to allow tenants to apply their current bond to their next lease.
• Introducing a mandatory requirement for 30% of all homes built on surplus government land to be set aside for social, affordable and diverse housing.
• Longer term funding certainty for homelessness support organisations dealing with the fall-out from the housing crisis.

ROSE JACKSON MLC
NSW SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS