(image via Old Town Home)
Around half of all social housing facilities in Australia have serious structural problems, the latest report has found.
Unveiling the results of its National Social Housing Survey, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare said that overall, 74 percent of social housing tenants were satisfied with the level of service they received through the social housing system.
But it found that almost half (46.7 percent) of tenants reported at least one structural problem with their premises.
Community housing fared best, with two-thirds (66.3 percent) of all tenants reporting that their premises was free of defects.
Almost half (48.7 percent) of all public housing has defects, however, whilst more than half (57.3 percent) of state owned or managed indigenous housing has at least one defect.
Around one in six homes (15.6 percent) had three or more structural defects whilst around three in ten (31.2 percent) had one or two defects.
Common defects included cracks in the walls and rising damp, the report said.
Whilst structural problems were a concern, however, it appears that social housing premises are on the whole being provided with good facilities.
Across all housing types, more than nine in ten had working cooking facilities (94 percent), fridges (98.5 percent) toilets (97.8 percent), baths/showers (97.8 percent), washing machines (97.7 percent), kitchen sinks (98.1 percent) and laundry tubs (98.3 percent).
Nevertheless, there were still problems in this area, with 11 percent of those in state owned indigenous housing having no working cooking facilities.
In other findings, according to the survey:
- The safety and security of the home was the most important aspect of housing in terms of amenity, followed by safe neighbourhoods and energy efficiency.
- Proximity to medical and emergency facilities was ranked by tenants as the most important factor in terms of suitable locations followed by proximity to banking and family and friends.
- Feeling more settled was a critical benefit of using social housing followed by being better able to manage money and being able to continue living within the area in which they were living.
- More than 60 percent of respondents of working age were not engaged within the labour force.
- Around one in three social housing households had at least one member of the family who had a disability.
