HOUSING

TACKLING OUR HOUSING CRISIS

Rising interest rates, cost-of-living pressures, growing construction costs, a broken housing market, and a persistent shortfall of new homes have led to decreasing rates of home ownership and increasing housing affordability issues across the ACT.

Young people, low-income earners, women escaping family and domestic violence, single-parent households, and people living on income support payments are experiencing alarming rates of housing stress. Home ownership is now beyond reach for many Canberrans unless they can rely on familial wealth. 

We urgently need more housing, and more affordable housing. The next generation of Canberrans should be able to live in high-quality, sustainable, well located homes, but our broken housing system is making that increasingly impossible.

According to Anglicare Australia's most recent Rental Affordability Snapshot, only 1 per cent of rental properties in Canberra and Queanbeyan are affordable for minimum wage earners. For pensioners and people on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance, the statistics are even worse. 

For too long, housing has been viewed primarily as a financial asset, and only secondarily as the means to satisfy a fundamental human need. The ACT Legislative Assembly has passed legislation to enshrine housing as a human right, making the ACT the first jurisdiction in Australia to do so. But we need significant reform if we are serious about actually upholding the human right to housing.

PUBLIC & COMMUNITY HOUSING

Social housing has been chronically underfunded in the ACT for decades, and the proportion of our total housing stock that is public housing has decreased by more than 50 per cent since self-government. We urgently need to increase public and community housing as a proportion of total residential dwellings, and increase the overall supply of homes here in the ACT. 

The chronic underfunding of public housing in our city has driven Housing ACT, our public housing provider, to liquidate the only assets they have – public housing dwellings – to generate capital for investment back into the system. The problem, of course, is that these are homes for some of the most vulnerable members of our community. I’ve heard from many concerned people in Kurrajong about their disappointment at seeing public housing sold off in the inner suburbs and relocated to outer areas that are further away from essential services. In February 2025, we saw another perverse outcome stemming from this approach when a volunteer-cultivated community garden was sold off as part of a public housing property in Ainslie.

In my supply-and-confidence agreement with the Chief Minister, I negotiated a commitment to increase the proportion of public and community housing across the ACT. I will continue to engage with the Government to ensure that commitment is fulfilled.

Public housing maintenance is also a problem. In March 2026, the ACT Ombudsman issued a report finding that Housing ACT had failed to meet its legal obligations to tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 in relation to the timely provision of necessary repairs and maintenance.

The ACT’s public housing stock is in the second-poorest condition in the country, with just 71 per cent of dwellings deemed to be of an acceptable standard according to data released in early 2026  – a decrease from 76 per cent in 2023 and 81 per cent in 2016. That means almost a third of public housing tenants in our community are living in homes that don’t have at least four working facilities – a stove, shower, toilet, etc – and no more than two major structural defects. This is completely unacceptable, particularly given our self-proclaimed status as Australia’s most progressive jurisdiction. 

In April 2026, I discovered that there were over 500 vacant public housing properties across the ACT, including more than 200 in Kurrajong, while over 3500 approved applicants wait on our public housing waitlist. Many of these homes need significant work to be made tenantable, but clearly that work has not been funded sufficiently. This is something I will continue advocating on in the Assembly.

ADDRESSING HOMELESSNESS

The ACT has the highest rate of persistent homelessness in the country. 

In 2023-24, almost one thousand children from the ages of 12 to 17 received assistance from Canberra's homelessness services. Nearly 200 of those children were without a parent or guardian when they sought help, which is both tragic and deeply concerning. 

Homelessness services across our city remain underfunded and overwhelmed, while pressure on them continues increasing due to the lack of social housing and the rising cost of living. I’m pushing for more sustainable funding for homelessness services, and more crisis accommodation to meet the level of need we’re seeing in our community.

I made an election commitment to advocate for a dedicated youth homelessness strategy, co-designed with the community sector to ensure it meets the unique needs of children and young people. In May 2026, the ACT Government agreed to develop a dedicated strategy to tackle youth homelessness in the ACT. I spoke in strong support of this commitment in the Assembly, and stressed that the forthcoming strategy needs to be fully funded and implemented.

MISSING MIDDLE HOUSING

Canberra has been growing rapidly, and our population is forecast to continue growing at one of the fastest rates in the country. Relentless urban sprawl brings with it detrimental economic, social and ecological impacts, which is why I support sensible densification.

If we want to preserve the incredible ecological diversity of our natural environment, we need to protect the limited untouched land we have and plan for a more compact, efficient and sustainable Canberra. 

To support this, the ACT Government has introduced planning reforms to legalise the construction of more low-rise apartments, terraces, townhouses and duplexes within established suburbs — close to essential services, jobs and educational opportunities. This will give more people, and a wider range of different people, the option to live in central areas like the Inner North. 

For these reforms to succeed, we need to embed a long-term strategic approach to community building in how we plan our city. 

A denser city means more people living closer together with less private space. Avoiding social fragmentation, building strong communities and maximising liveability in such a city requires the cultivation of appealing public spaces. 

I’m pushing for more community involvement in shaping our shared spaces, and more government investment in the community infrastructure needed to make densification work for current and future residents alike.

Great parks, playgrounds, active travel infrastructure, public transport options, community centres, sports facilities, and well-lit public spaces — these are the kinds of things we need to prioritise to make Canberra a great place to live as it densifies.

STRATA COMMISSIONER

More Canberrans will be living in apartments, townhouses and other strata-managed properties as more ‘missing middle’ housing gets built across the Territory.

I am regularly contacted by Canberrans with significant concerns about high strata fees, poor service delivery and unresolved strata disputes. A strata-related disagreement can be a hugely destabilising life disruption, particularly when significant sums of money are involved. 

We need a Strata Commissioner who’s able to help resolve disputes without the hassle, costs and stress of going to court, and who can advocate for reform where it’s needed for apartment dwellers. A commitment to establish such a role within the ACT Government is contained in my supply-and-confidence agreement with the Chief Minister. I’ve been lobbying for this position to be set up as a matter of priority, and resourced sufficiently to meet community expectations.

SPECIALIST DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION

For the last decade, many people with disability living in public housing in the ACT have been unable to access a critical Commonwealth funding stream to ensure their homes meet their needs.

Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) is housing designed for people with disability who have very high support needs, and is funded through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). SDA funding is allocated in eligible people's NDIS plans, and provided to their housing providers to ensure their housing meets their specific needs. Importantly, it cannot be received directly by the NDIS participants themselves; it must be claimed and utilised by their housing provider on their behalf.

Housing ACT registered as an SDA provider in 2017, but has never accessed any of the funding in the plans of any of its tenants. Estimates suggest the ACT has missed out on between $10 million and $30 million in federal funding through this program during this time. 

Following public pressure in April 2024, the ACT Government announced it was looking into this, starting with a four-month consultation process. But then, in November 2025, we found out that piece of work had never progressed.

Housing ACT’s registration as an SDA provider was due to expire on 14 December 2025, requiring a recertification audit to renew its registration. The Minister for Homes, Homelessness and New Suburbs Yvette Berry MLA made the decision not to proceed with the recertification audit and renewal process, having received advice that Housing ACT would not pass the audit. 

Senator David Pocock and I have written to the relevant Ministers calling for them to take the necessary steps for Housing ACT’s registration to be reinstated, and for both levels of government to work together to ensure NDIS participants living in public housing in the ACT no longer miss out on this critical funding stream to which they are entitled.

Recently, the ACT Government revealed that Housing ACT had not claimed any of the NDIS funding available to modify public housing for people with disability in the ACT.