The Hodgman Liberal Government is working to rebuild the State’s human services to address the needs of our most vulnerable Tasmanians.
The latest quarterly Human Services Progress Report, released today, shows that while we still have a long way to go, there are welcome improvements in the housing waiting list, in the number of people housed, in unallocated child protection notifications and in the housing of people with a disability.
We are making progress in addressing the previous Labor and Labor-Green governments’ legacy of cuts to public housing stock, which was reduced by 1071 homes, from 14,370 down to 13,299.
An increase in the waiting list caused by the introduction of Housing Connect, a one-stop shop for Tasmanians’ affordable housing needs, as was predicted by the previous minister, peaked in the December quarter and is now in decline.
In the last three months, we have seen a significant decrease in the number of people waiting for housing assistance, down by 189 or more than six per cent.
This is matched by an increase in the number of applicants housed in public housing; remembering also that many clients are housed through other options.
It is important to note that the housing wait list does not represent the number of Tasmanians who are homeless or even at risk of homelessness, but simply those who have applied for housing assistance.
The Government is continuing to work on our Affordable Housing Strategy, which will address the full range of Tasmanians’ housing needs into the future.
In child protection, meanwhile, there has been a strong improvement in the number of active notifications waiting assignment to a case worker, with nine such cases as at 31 March compared to 21 last year and none of these were Priority 1.
Also, fewer Tasmanians with a disability are waiting for support accommodation than there were last year.
The report can be accessed on the Department’s website at the following link – www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/about_the_department/performance