whiteknight wrote on Mar 4^th, 2026 at 5:03pm:




Oh, but it is.

And I think the tenants are not exactly the people you would rent your own home to.

Housing ACT failing tenants by leaving properties in disrepair, ombudsman says   



March 4 2026
ABC News


In short:
The ACT Ombudsman says the ACT government is failing as a landlord.

Public housing tenants have spoken about properties that have had mould, holes, and broken appliances for years.

What's next?
The government has agreed to the ombudsman's recommendations to improve processes.


Canberra's biggest landlord is under fire for failing to repair and maintain its properties in a timely way — or at all.

ACT Ombudsman Iain Anderson said "Housing ACT has not satisfied its legal obligations" after his office investigated multiple recent complaints by tenants.

"We found that it often took a long time to fully complete required repairs, even though there were safety hazards such as mould and leaking roofs in their homes," Mr Anderson said in a report.

"We identified poor communication between Housing ACT, tenants and contractors … in some cases, tenants were not told what was being done to fix problems in their home for months."

The report made eight recommendations in regard to fixing processes to get things done more quickly and with improved transparency, which the government has agreed to.

'Better off being homeless'
Public housing tenant Andy Coogan said the government's failings have exhausted him.   

"I feel belittled, humiliated … worthless," the disability pensioner said.

Mr Coogan lives with his assistance dog, Max, and has been at his property for seven years.

"The first 12 months of my tenancy, I had no working bathroom [and], for the first two months, no way of washing my clothes. I've had mould growing throughout the house," he said.

"It took five years for Housing ACT to install a dog door.

"It makes me feel like I'm better off being homeless and living on the streets than living on a construction site."

Mr Coogan estimated he had spent $15,000 out of his own pocket for repairs and maintenance in one year.   

A man with arms crossed outdoors.
Gus Bamberry says the ACT government needs to better communicate with its public housing tenants.

Fellow tenant Gus Bamberry, who lives with spina bifida, echoed what the ombudsman's report has revealed about poor communication.

"It's a job in itself trying to get a response. A lot of tenants don't even know who their housing manager is," he said.

"I had holes in my roof after a maintenance issue. They replaced my lights then didn't come for a patch and paint for three years.

"I'm a disabled man and my life would be a lot easier if I didn't have to deal with the daily stress of the lack of maintenance."

In-house capability promised
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the government had committed to modernising housing stock and becoming less reliant on contractors.

"There's been some serious issues in relation to the maintenance contract for elements of the public housing portfolio — there's no doubting that," he said.

"The problem is, you can't axe a contract with nothing to replace it, and the change process to effectively have the in-house capability … is not something that can be done overnight."

Independent MLA Thomas Emerson said more and more public housing properties were becoming uninhabitable despite the government's Growing and Renewing Public Housing Program, which has aimed to renew at least 1,000 homes and add 400 homes by the next financial year.

The government has just over 11,900 properties.

"I welcome the government's commitment to insourcing [repairs and maintenance] work, but that alone isn't going to solve the problem," Mr Emerson said.

"What we need to see is a shift in priorities, because we're not investing enough in this area and that has costs downstream."

A bearded man in a dark shirt speaks with a dark-haired woman in a city plaza.
Gus Bamberry speaks with ACT Shelter chief executive Corinne Dobson.

ACT Shelter's Corinne Dobson said the government had overseen years of public housing underinvestment, and she hoped plans to insource management of the portfolio would help.

"There's been a lot of systemic problems with the outsourcing of repairs and maintenance. But even if it's government-delivered, that's no guarantee that it's going to address the issues," she said.   

"[The tenants] are living in the kinds of conditions no-one should be living in."

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote on Mar 5^th, 2026 at 6:42am:



About 5 years ago -
I heard about a one bedroom Unit that was part of Govt. social housing
in the SE suburbs of Melbourne.
The tenant went on a drug fueled rage and smashed the place up.
He was taken to a psyche ward by the cops for a week or more.
The place was fixed up by the Govt very quickly at great expense
and 2 weeks later he was back in the place.

We pay for that with our taxes - he didn't pay.

So because of a few bad apples its okay to demonise ppl living in housing because they are poor so it must be thier own fault so they dont deserve basic maintenance right?

Spot