00:02Squatting in a rundown house with no power, Colin Betts is desperate to find a permanent home.
00:08I don't want to live on the street, mate. I do not want to live on the street.
00:11On the social housing waitlist for seven years, a Queensland Housing Department official recently told him he'd been removed for
00:18being uncontactable.
00:20I said, you got me phone number. Oh, is it this number? I went, yep, that's what the number is,
00:24you know.
00:25And they had two numbers. So why couldn't they catch up with me?
00:28Mr Betts was one of almost two and a half thousand social housing applicants cancelled for being uncontactable in the
00:35last financial year.
00:37An audit found the Department of Housing doesn't keep adequate records on how many times people are contacted before they're
00:43removed.
00:44I think we've got a systems level problem here.
00:46Since the LNP came into office, the number of people waiting for social housing dropped by more than 4,000.
00:52Housing Minister Sam O'Connor says that's due to an increase in housing supply and more thorough reviews of applications.
01:00He says officers make reasonable multiple attempts to contact all applicants.
01:05Advocates say agencies should need to wait at least six months and have made at least six attempts to contact
01:11someone before being able to remove them.
01:14We should see the system performing to overcome the barriers to access rather than give up too soon, especially when
01:20there's a lot of pressure to see the register come down.
01:22ôi- emails
01:23You
