{"id":829961,"date":"2026-07-28T22:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T22:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829961\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T22:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T22:35:15","slug":"hundreds-of-households-leave-queensland-social-housing-after-tenancy-and-rental-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829961\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of households leave Queensland social housing after tenancy and rental review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of households have been kicked out of social housing in Queensland after being found to own property or earn more than $80,000 a year.<\/p>\n

A state government review of 46,210 households in public housing over the last financial year has led to 359 leaving.<\/p>\n

Of those, 76 owned property or had a high income \u2014 less than 1 per cent of those reviewed.<\/p>\n

Another 143 public housing tenants are being examined further after being identified as potentially owning property.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 3,709 households have had their rent reduced because it was found they were paying more than a quarter of their income.<\/p>\n

For households found to be paying less than 25 per cent of their income as required, rent rises are capped at $15 a week each year.<\/p>\n

Public housing evictions triple in a year<\/a><\/p>\n

Under the new policy, tenants who receive three warnings for serious behaviour, including aggressive language, harassment and deliberate damage, in a year are evicted.<\/p>\n

Last year the government announced<\/a> it would review tenants’ eligibility and rents for social housing annually.<\/p>\n

Public housing tenants are not allowed to own or part-own property in Australia or overseas, including vacant land.<\/p>\n

A household’s income must not exceed $80,000, and tenants must provide information to confirm their ongoing eligibility when requested.<\/p>\n

In the 2025-26 financial year, 211 households were moved on after failing to provide information within 28 days, 38 left while under review, and three vacated after a tribunal process.<\/p>\n

Housing Minister Sam O’Connor said the figures showed the importance of undertaking reviews.<\/p>\n

\"Queensland<\/p>\n

Sam O’Connor says thousands of the state’s most vulnerable had been paying too much in rent. (ABC News: Christopher Gillette)<\/p>\n

“We’re restoring fairness and making sure as many taxpayer-funded homes as possible are for the Queenslanders who most need a place to call home,” he said.<\/p>\n

In the last financial year, another 267 households chose to downsize, which the Department of Housing says freed up 401 bedrooms for families in need of larger homes.<\/p>\n

Change to income limits not on the table<\/p>\n

In Queensland, the income limit for a single person with no children applying for social housing is $609 per week, and $755 for a couple.<\/p>\n

The opposition has called on the government to review income thresholds for public housing eligibility in case it is excluding people who need help.<\/p>\n

Asked by Labor in budget estimates last week, Department of Housing and Public Works Director-General Mark Cridland said there would be no change to eligibility income limits while more than 20,000 approved households were on the register.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Department of Housing and Public Works Director-General Mark Cridland faced budget estimate hearings last week.<\/p>\n

It was also revealed in budget estimates that the average wait time for a household on the social housing register had increased by 10 months in a year, from 21.2 months last year to 31.7 months as of June.<\/p>\n

Mr Cridland said the department currently had an “incredibly low” vacancy rate because very few people were leaving public housing.<\/p>\n

Want to have your say? Go to www.abc.net.au\/yoursay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of households have been kicked out of social housing in Queensland after being found to own property…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,7688,44,7690,94,701,15878,403187,7691,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-829961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-housing","tag-news","tag-public-housing","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-government","tag-sam-oconnor","tag-social-housing","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}