Qld evicts high-income tenants from social homes to tackle 59k waiting list

Source: Courier Mail

Hundreds of Queenslanders are being booted from taxpayer-funded social housing after they were found to be exploiting the system while owning properties or earning high incomes.

The state government’s “social housing reset” targeting big-earning Queenslanders living in subsidised public housing has identified more than 155 households were found to be earning incomes of more than $100,000 and 28 households owned properties since June.

In November alone, nearly 267 households were notified they were ineligible for ongoing public housing and were provided four months notice to leave, according to new government figures.

The reset checks inspected annual salaries of every person in social housing, if they owned or part-owned another property or if they fail to provide necessary information to confirm their ongoing eligibility.

The crackdown was expected to help free up much needed social homes for a growing waiting list that has now reached nearly 59,000 people as of September 30 – up from 53,874 people captured in the August data.

Other new housing data has revealed the state government will need to build double the number of social homes each year in order to reach the promise of 53,500 social homes by 2044.

From November 1, 2024, to December 2025 the government built or purchased 1895 social homes.

But to hit the target they would need to build approximately 3000 homes each year.

Queensland Council of Social Service CEO Aimee McVeigh said while the target was commendable, if the government did not reach it and the numbers on the waiting list kept increasing, the housing crisis would not end.

“It is a record high, and it is showing that we are not in any way housing people at the rate we need to be if the register is continuing to grow in that way,” she said.

“It is concerning to see it growing like that and to know that we are missing opportunities to bring forward supply of more social and affordable housing.”

Since the June budget, the state government has only contracted another 343 social homes to be built, taking it to a total of 3343 for the year.

While 1895 social homes were built or purchased, another 328 homes were removed from social housing, according to the latest departmental data.

This is expected to provide homes to 2600 people – about 5 per cent of the 58,586 people on the waiting list.