Social housing - Growth of waiting lists is shocking

SOMETHING strange happened during the economic boom. We never built so many new houses, we never had so many new house buyers and we had a doubling of the number of families in need of social housing.

The failure to stem the growth of the housing waiting list, never mind reduce it, is shocking given the unprecedented national wealth that characterised the period. Housing was discussed in terms of a commodity, an investment and a sign of commercial success. It was rarely mentioned as a basic human right.

Yet it doesn’t take a disaster relief co-ordinator to know the first essentials for existence are food and shelter. And it shouldn’t take an international treaty to drive the point home.