New South Wales’s priority social housing waitlist has doubled in less than a decade and surged by 1,000 to 7,573 over the past year, as wait times continue to rise across the state.
New data from the Department of Communities and Justice, to be released on Friday, will reveal the extent of a crisis that the housing minister, Rose Jackson, has conceded is “desperate” and “confronting”.
“The first step in fixing a problem is admitting you have a problem,” Jackson said. “We do have a problem and we’re trying to be open about that.”
Data shows the number of applications on the combined priority and general waitlist grew from 57,889 in July last year to more than 60,000 in January before it dropped to 55,880 in June.
But the priority list for those most in need grew consistently month on month over the past year, from 6,473 last July 2022 to 7,573 in June.
“It is a direct consequence of vulnerable people who are already in a difficult situation in the housing market being really pushed,” Jackson said.
There were 3,688 applicants on the priority list in 2015 and it has since more than doubled.
Median wait times have also increased to up to three months for those on the priority list. Applicants on the general list can expect to wait 22.5 months before being allocated a home.
Jackson said she was “determined” to improve the situation.
“But the scale of the task is massive and the only way we are going to be able to really do something significant on the waiting list is to bring a lot of social housing online,” she said. “There’s no trick to it.”
The government will begin releasing monthly housing data from Friday in a move Jackson hoped would provide closer to real-time information for people working in the sector and a clearer picture for those waiting for help.
“I’m desperately anxious about [the situation],” Jackson said. “That just drives me to want to put it all out there. I want to be honest about the dynamics. There’s nothing to hide. It’s a tough thing that we’re dealing with.”
Jackson has stressed her desire to improve the housing situation, through any means necessary, since being appointed minister after Labor’s election victory in March.
In an interview after becoming minister, Jackson told Guardian Australia she would push for medium- and high-density social housing developments in Sydney’s north shore and eastern suburbs, saying she would tell nimbys to “get out of the way”.
The government has since announced an audit of all publicly owned land to find parcels for development, with the first tranche to be announced before the end of the year.
Jackson cited the appointment of a rental commissioner and proposed changes to planning laws to allow for taller buildings and greater density when developers met a social housing threshold, as ways the government was working to ease the housing crisis.
She said the Minns government and other states were “really up for rental reform” and urged the federal Greens to pass the Albanese government’s housing australia future fund.
“Maybe it’s not exactly what the Greens want but we are doing stuff and to hold up funding for social housing because we’re not doing everything the Greens want on rental reform is just outrageous,” she said.
If the federal parliament cannot reach an agreement, she was open to the commonwealth handing the state money to build homes instead.
“I’m open to everything,” she said. “The thing I like about the fund is that it’s long-term funding, it’s sustainable funding.”
Rental reforms and housing will be discussed when national cabinet meets in Brisbane next week.
