For some years now, YWCA Canberra and Canberra's housing and homelessness support sector has kept mum about repeated and avoidable failings of ACT Housing. Some of these concerns predate the COVID-19 pandemic, and the worsening housing crisis itself. Under pressure to meet Canberra's housing needs, we repeatedly hear excuses and passing accountability that it's everyone else's fault but Housing ACT's.

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With Canberra's population expected to increase by 100,000 people over the next 10 years, there's never been a more pressing issue in the political and social landscape than housing access and affordability.

The Housing ACT waitlist currently sits at 133 days for those in the most urgent category of need, and while this number has receded since peaking around 2022, the wait times for the remaining categories high-needs applications and standard applications continue to worsen. The wait time for high-needs applicants fluctuate considerably and currently sit at more than three years. These are excruciating wait periods for desperate people who need public, income-based housing.

It's not just about the waitlist, however.

READ MORE: Public housing tenants 'better off homeless' as Housing ACT comes under fire

As far back as February 2024, we were told that public housing tenants were living in "third world conditions" as damp carpet, mold, and repairs went unaddressed and vulnerable people suffered. Despite the headlines, the rest of Canberra moved on while the plight of these tenants continued. With the release of a report by the ACT Ombudsman last week further calling out these hazardous living conditions and protracted repair times, it's time to fully ventilate ACT Housing policy and program failings.

It's difficult to pinpoint when exactly the wheels started to fall off. In 2019, hundreds of ACT Housing tenants were issued notices inviting them to relocate as their housing was earmarked for the growth and renewal program. Those who declined the 'invitation' were later sent eviction notices. Today, ACT Housing is currently staring down a class action from those tenants who received eviction notices, citing unconscionable conduct and a breach of contract.

That's not where the headlines with the growth and renewal program end, however. With such a straightforward name, you would be forgiven for believing the purpose of the program was clear: growth in new stock and renewal of the existing stock. Alas, you'd be mistaken. After the ACT Audit Office raised serious concerns with probity including decision making, record keeping, and administration of the program in 2024, the government told us that growth wasn't the objective of a program otherwise called growth and renewal. Following?

And what about plans to respond to youth homelessness through the building of a Youth Foyer in the new CIT Woden site? Available for young people aged 16 to 24,Youth Foyer is intended to provide a home close for those unable to live with family, but who wanted to finish their education. CIT Woden opened in July 2025. The Youth Foyer? Well, 20 units have sat empty, and management of the facility has only recently been procured by ACT Housing.

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And let's not forget how the ACT Housing Minister took the step of referring her own directorate to the Audit office when it was revealed the ACT government had missed out on potentially millions of dollars in federal funding for specialist disability upgrades for ACT Housing tenants. Given more than half of ACT Housing tenants have a disability, it is incomprehensible that support to upgrade toilets, kitchens and ramps went unused or unclaimed by ACT Housing. It is small comfort that an Assembly inquiry has been set up to identify what went wrong because with so many statutory investigations, tenant complaints, and headlines there's surely space in the filing cabinet for another report.

We are past the tipping point. The desperate need for housing solutions in Canberra has never been more relevant and has been thoroughly exhausted in media, bureaucracy, and the Legislative Assembly. The people who suffer the most from the systemic failures are those desperate for a place to live that isn't a motel room, a car, a spare room, or a mold infested public dwelling. Our limited public housing will not improve until accountability replaces deflection- and outcomes matter more than excuses.

Frances Crimmins is the CEO of YWCA Canberra.

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