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  • 16 hours ago
The Tasmanian Government is embarking on another restructure of its housing and homelessness services, scrapping ‘Homes Tasmania’ after just three and a half years. Felicity Hirst has been on the social housing waitlist that entire time and is still without a home.

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00:02Felicity Hurst is running out of space for her ever-growing collection of sci-fi memorabilia.
00:07And then like all my pop vinyls, like there's a heap out in the fridge.
00:12She and her dog Eva are living with her mum and dad while she waits for a social housing spot.
00:17It's been three and a half years.
00:19It kind of gets to you mentally, because you don't know what's going to happen the next day or the
00:25day after.
00:25We all get along very well, but I just want her to be on her own and just be a
00:36normal adult.
00:37Felicity is one of five and a half thousand applicants on Tasmania's social housing waitlist.
00:42That's 20% more than in December 2022, when Homes Tasmania was established to increase housing supply
00:50and help deliver more social and affordable homes.
00:53Now, another restructure's on the way.
00:56The Premier admitting it hasn't met expectations.
01:00The government has come to realise that Homes Tasmania has been a thought bubble, a failed experiment,
01:05and it's Tasmanians that have paid the price for this.
01:08Homes Tasmania, which operated outside of direct government control, has had some bad press.
01:14Land rezoned under what the government called fast-tracking laws has taken years to hit the market.
01:19Social housing tenants have been waiting months for basic repairs.
01:23Meanwhile, vacant land and crisis accommodation has been included in a commitment to deliver 10,000 new homes.
01:30When you're in the middle of a crisis, you don't just throw up your hands and remove responsibility further away
01:37from your control.
01:38Housing Minister Kerry Vincent says some work by Homes Tasmania is only now coming to fruition.
01:43An escalation of land coming on sale with projects, with a lot more communication with the federal government,
01:52who have been extremely cooperative and supportive.
01:55The peak body for Tasmania's housing industry says there's been too much focus on the perfect home.
02:00We need more social and more affordable housing right across the state, and that can be to the minimum safe
02:07and secure standards for Tasmanians.
02:09The responsibility for social housing and building more homes is now going to be given to a new government department
02:15called Building Tasmania.
02:17It's also going to manage the state's infrastructure program.
02:21I think it's a great opportunity what we're doing with Building Tas to actually supercharge, to make it more deliverable.
02:29An urgent task as some keep on waiting.
02:33It's my duty to observe.
02:36BOOF
02:36BOOF
02:37BOOF
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