Roger Jaensch,Minister for Housing
The Tasmanian Liberal Government is delivering our Plan to address the housing shortage and reduce homelessness in our State.
The Government is investing record amounts to deliver new housing and homelessness services for Tasmanians in need.
This is in addition to hundreds of applicants that are supported with their housing needs each month and the more than 12,500 households that are already in social housing around the state.
However, on World ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾lessness Day, we recognise there is still more to be done.
For those Tasmanians sleeping rough, our $4.3 million housing and homelessness support package continues to provide additional homelessness support through expanded 24-hour Safe Spaces in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie, as well as uncapped emergency accommodation and wrap-around support services state-wide.
The Government is also investing heavily into expanding the capacity of our homeless shelters and delivering new ones through our additional $5 million investment, which saw an extra 35 new units of homeless accommodation delivered so far this year.
We also increased funding to the Private Rental Incentive Scheme to increase the pool of available houses by up to 75 houses and a further 20 houses for Rapid Rehousing for those escaping family violence.
The COVID-19 Rent Relief Fund was also established to provide support of up to $2,000 or 4 weeks rent for tenants suffering extreme hardship, particularly during the pandemic.
At the same time, we are working to deliver hundreds of new social homes under our Affordable Housing Strategy, and recently advertised an EOI to deliver up to 1000 new social housing dwellings over the next three years, under our Community Housing Growth Program.
World ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾lessness Day reminds us there is more work to do to combat homelessness in Tasmania, and we will continue to deliver shelter and support for those in need.
