Tasmania’s housing crisis demands action, not rejection of social housing developments

How can we tackle homelessness when crucial developments are being knocked back? I was horrified last week when Hobart City Council voted against a development for social housing in North Hobart. The vote went against the planning experts' advice that it should pass. This development by Vinnies would have helped over 50 women my age, and they're the people most at risk of homelessness right now. These women are often coming out of long-term relationships with no housing or financial stability. They're finding themselves out in the cold, on the streets or sleeping in tents. It could be your mother or your sister. It could one day be me.

I've been on a public housing waiting list. I know what it's like to have a pit in your stomach every day, not knowing if you're going to have a roof over your head that night or not. Everyone deserves to be safe at night.

Last year I negotiated a minimum guarantee of 1,200 homes for Tassie from the Housing Australia Future Fund. I fought hard for Tassie to get its fair share of this funding so we could start sending homelessness backwards for the first time ever in Tasmania. Projects like this proposed social housing development are exactly the kinds of things that money should be going towards. State and local governments need to make sure developments get moving. That's their part of the job when it comes to the housing crisis. If they're not up to the task then something needs to change.

The number of houses approved across Australia last year was the lowest in the last decade. State planning laws need to be made easier for councils to approve homes. If the experts say a development should be approved, that advice should be listened to. Everyone wants to fix homelessness, but it's in their own backyards. But you can't have your cake and eat it too.