Tuesday, December 03, 2024

Tag: TAS

Island homes: Tasmania election campaign offers few solutions to state’s housing crisis

Housing stress is at an all-time high in Tasmania, shutting out first-home buyers, squeezing the rental market and increasing homelessness

Before Sue Hickey entered state politics as a Liberal MP in 2018, she was Hobart’s lord mayor. Pledging to clean up public toilets and local politics, she also took a keen interest in the plight of people experiencing homelessness.

“You’d see these faces come out of nowhere,” Hickey says, recalling night tours of the city with food van staff and volunteers.

“You’d arrive, you wouldn’t see them, and then all these people just desperate for a sandwich and a Milo with five sugars would appear.”

Those outings were an eye-opener for Hickey, but for most Tasmanians homelessness and housing insecurity were out of sight, out of mind.

Liberal Speaker Sue Hickey calls for Housing Tasmania to be restructured and downsized

The Liberal Speaker Sue Hickey has accused the state’s public housing provider of prejudice, failing its vulnerable tenants and of being an unfit landlord.

In a last minute submission to the Tasmanian Parliament’s housing affordability inquiry, Ms Hickey — who since being elected in March last year has proven to be a regular thorn in her party’s side — said Housing Tasmania had forgotten the “human element” of providing public housing resulting in people being treated poorly.

“Prejudice it appears has crept into the Housing Tasmania organisation whose culture is one of compliance above humanity, compassion and solutions,” she said.

Read the original article at www.abc.net.au