Level of assistance
Average level of subsidy increased due to higher market rents assessed on public housing properties and the continuing trend for new households entering public housing on very low incomes.
Targeting of assistance
The proportion of tenants who are newly housed in public housing each year, that have special needs remains steady at just over 55 per cent. In community housing the proportion is over 70 per cent. Tenants with special needs are largely the young, the elderly, Aboriginal people and people with a disability. They may also include tenants with support needs such as people with a mental illness.
Vacancy management
The number of turnaround days to re-let public housing stock remains steady at 26 days, having dropped by six days over the past six years. Turnaround days in community housing is lower at 19 days. Vacancy rates of housing stock are consistently low, currently sitting at 1.4 per cent in public housing and 1.6 per cent in community housing.
Client debt
The small increase in the proportion of rental arrears is largely as a result of external factors. These factors include higher prices for petrol and other essential items. This has put additional pressure on our tenants who have limited capacity to absorb cost increases.
Maintenance costs
Maintenance costs rose in the year 2005–06, in part reflecting the extra work as part of the roll-out of the Maintenance Reform Program (MRP).
Addressing the maintenance backlog continued through the year, resulting in planned works expenditure, 20 per cent higher than the previous year largely due to the new fire safety upgrade program.
The underlying cost increase over the year for materials and labour was in the order of 3 per cent making the increases for responsive and planned maintenance 5 per cent and 17 per cent respectively in real terms
Administrative costs
For public housing, the average cost of providing assistance (excluding capital) per dwelling increased in the last year by 8 per cent. The increase is a result of repairs and maintenance, piloting of the Maintenance Reform Program (MRP) and temporary increases in administrative costs to implement the MRP and Reshaping Public Housing reforms.