Canberra’s public housing tenants are begging for the ACT Government to fix broken locks, mould infestations, and collapsing ceilings, according to Mark Parton, Shadow Minister for Housing.
The Liberal MLA has circulated a petition calling on the ACT Government to ensure that maintenance requests from public housing tenants are dealt with within the required timeframe, and to bring all ACT public houses up to health and safety standards.
Mr Parton said more than 150 people have signed the petition in its first week, and he expects that number to grow over the next month.
He said his petition was prompted after the Canberra Liberals were inundated with emails and images from tenants living in unsafe conditions across the city.
Public housing tenants who regularly contacted his office felt as though the government ignored them when they sought help to fix the poor condition of their home, he said.
One Housing ACT tenant told him: “No one is helping us, and we all feel scared. We all want and deserve to feel safe, and Housing’s treatment of us is not commensurate to what we deserve.”
Another said: “I have made countless reports and phone calls, to only fall on deaf ears and be told to ‘move on’, ‘get over it’, ‘nothing I can do’.”
Mr Parton said Labor and the Greens had abandoned some of the most vulnerable people in our city.
“It is just not acceptable, especially for those tenants who are currently living in substandard circumstances and are risking their health and safety just to have a roof over their head.”
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The Liberals have criticised the government’s record on home maintenance for much of this year. In April, they called on the government to resolve significant public housing maintenance requests by the end of August; the government altered that motion, reaffirming its commitment to make sure all public housing dwellings met health and safety standards.
“The government needs to act urgently. They have the power to fix this mess, and they should,” Mr Parton said.
An ACT Government spokesperson said that Housing ACT was committed to providing the best possible accommodation and support to more than 11,355 tenants who resided in approximately 10,412 public housing properties.
The Total Facilities Management (TFM) contract that provides maintenance for these properties allows the ACT Government to ensure the best value for money for Canberrans. The contract undertakes more than 55,000 work orders each year ranging from minor maintenance tasks through to major property refurbishments and upgrades.
Housing ACT responded that they unapologetically set the bar very high for the performance of the Total Facility Manager, Programmed. Programmed was required to respond to all requests within certain timeframe targets. For example, emergency or urgent repairs needed to be done within four hours. Responsive and planned repairs were prioritised to ensure critical and essential work was completed first.
Mark Parton’s petition closes Sunday 29 August, and can be found here: https://www.markparton.com.au/housing-petition
