I'm with King Hazza here - I'd support more public houses - and not built 30 kilometres out in the boon docks either.

With all of its attendant problems, public housing was a crucial initiative for helping the poor and settling new migrants.

Indeed, if you hated greedy land developers, the thing to do would be to build MORE public housing.

Much of the tabloid anger directed public housing tenants fails to pass the 'walk a mile in my shoes test'. The media don't trade in empathy - it's not televisual.

hasbeen,

no i would not support what you mention if that is the case.

I am talking more about public subsidies to allow people to purchase cheaper homes. I should have made that clearer. I forgot abut the rent versus ownership issue, although they are both important.

When looking to the past, i was thinking of how coalition govts even considered importing houses to meet people's needs.

What ever is done in terms of the use of public money, it has to be cost effective and comparable to private sector costs.

I will not deny that solutions are hard, but we cannot simply go on the way we are if we are to make housing more affordable (to purchase).

Chris Lewis

I agree that we need more housing, but I doubt public housing alone is the answer. Here in Western Australia alone we have 25,000 families awaiting public housing. Assuming about $400,000 per home, that equates to $10 billion to meet current demand. Even a resource-rich state like WA just can’t afford that.

Private rental subsidies may help, but the risk of subsidies is that they simply inflate demand, resulting in higher prices and making the problem worse. This is what first home owner grants may have done.

I believe support and incentives for community housing will be a much more important part of the mix in future. Community groups are better able to match supply with need and seem to manage a relationships with tenants better than state government agencies.

Fundamentally, we need more housing – higher supply would lead to lower prices and better affordability. Some people would still need community housing of some sort, but more would be able to look after themselves if affordability improved

rhian,

good points.

a thorough debate will give us all food for thought.

It may well be that supply is the biggest impediment, so immigration and foreign ownership of housing must also be considered.

This is why I strongly believe data should be collected on just who is buying housing (foreign sources).

Whatever is decided, someone may lose out, whether it be foreigners, govts (tax revenue) or spending, or investors, but more must be done to make housing more affordable at the bottom end. This may include measures to encourage smaller houses rather than building McMansions.

Dear Hasbeen
I have lived in public housing, and despite its shortfalls, believe strongly that we need it, and we need more of it urgently.

I rented following a marital breakdown. I moved into public housing because I was living in the country - which was more amenable to a single parent renting and working - and my child was having chemotherapy at the Royal Children's Hospital. My car died and what I could afford to replace it with would not last the kms between us and the hospital on a regular basis.

I moved out of public housing. As soon as I earned above $40k pa, private rent was cheaper, and some of the difficulties sharing space with people with serious problems alluded to above became too much.

I have been forced to move four times since then. Twice due to the properties falling into such disrepair they were unsafe, twice because owners had rented the place out to make some money and now wanted to move in. The last time I was left homeless with my children. My suburb is on a hill. All the properties have stairs. A child with a disability needs to remain in reasonable proximity to doctors, schools, chemist, and all the places where we have managed to make things work for her.

For the most part only public housing is wheelchair accessible, and without access my daughter can not live there. The waiting list means this is not an option at all.

I have worked my entire life, studied raised children, volunteer with community groups. And we ended up on the street for 5 months because, as Tony Abbott said, s&*t happens.

While I understand you frustration about wastage and inefficiency, this is management, not public housing itself.

I think organisations like Homeground are to be applauded for looking at alternatives to the current arrangement, but lets not simply dismiss public housing out of hand.

S&*t happens to all of us Hasbeen.

Now you've got me Chris. I don't mind at all, helping those who want to get into their own homes.

However it does have some problems.

Tom Burns got himself into trouble with a scheme here in Queensland. It was one of those low start increasing repayment schemes, that worked well, with high inflation, giving rapid wage growth. When inflation dropped many were hurt, despite the good intentions. It was really bad to see a bloke who tried to help, & people who tried to help themselves in trouble, because of an economic change none of them could have forecast.

I'd love to see something similar with aboriginal housing.

There would have to be one go only policy though. Once someone had been set up, there could be no return to further rental support.

My only requirement would be that it must not hurt those doing it on their own. Those who have not cost the taxpayer anything, but are struggling, must not be required to suffer further to pay for others.