Houses acquired for a road project in Adelaide and left vacant because of delays should be made available to renters to ease the housing crisis, the South Australian opposition says.
Social and community housing spokeswoman Michelle Lensink says the opposition has already identified six vacant properties on one street along the South Road project.
After winning the election in March, Labor announced completion of the north-south road corridor would be delayed by at least a year to 2031.
"Repurposing these perfectly good homes to address our housing crisis would be nothing short of a winter miracle for people desperate for a roof over their heads," Ms Lensink said.
"With almost 400 properties already earmarked for acquisition and possibly more to come, this is a short-term no-brainer to get South Australians off our streets and into a combination of social and rental housing."
But Deputy Premier Susan Close described the opposition's calls as a distraction and said while some houses along the north-south corridor were set to be demolished for early works, others were already being made available to rent.
"They have been made available. Of course, maintenance has been an issue but so too is when they're being purchased and when people are moving out," Ms Close said.
The deputy premier acknowledged there were serious problems with the affordability of housing across the country but said they were not going to be solved quickly or easily.
"One of the methods we've adopted is making sure we have a greater supply of public housing to ease the pressure on those people who are most disadvantaged," she said.
On Sunday, the opposition also outlined a range of proposed initiatives to ease the pressure on renters, including cutting bond payments, increasing rent assistance payments, simplifying the rental application process and working with property owners to convert some short-term rentals to longer leases.
"It's incredibly heartbreaking hearing the desperate measures families are resorting to due to the difficult housing market such as living in tents, cars and caravans," Ms Lensink said.
