Estimates - Housing and Planning - Multicultural Access to Affordable Housing
Ms BURNET - Minister, I'm curious to know - for people who speak languages other than English, or particularly the migrant community who are also finding it difficult to find social and affordable housing - and I'm sure that every MP in this room has the challenge of trying to find some solutions for many of their constituents - but given the issues around family and domestic violence in multicultural communities, as well as in the broader community, and the different types of housing needs, can you just describe how your agency works to find solutions for them?
Mr VINCENT - I'll certainly ask for some guidance on that from Homes Tasmania. It's not an area that I have put myself into, to be honest, at this stage. I've been concentrating on the whole picture and probably not some of those categories, but I -
Ms BURNET- You have a large responsibility, minister.
Mr VINCENT - Yes. I haven't struck too much of those situations at this stage. Obviously, it's part of it. I will ask for some guidance from Homes Tasmania. Thank you.
Mr WILSON - Through you, minister, and thanks for the question. In accessing housing there, our Housing Connect providers and Front Door services do work with organisations like the Migrant Resource Centre on a daily basis and regular basis there. From Homes Tasmania's perspective, we also support the Migrant Resource Centre with accommodation options as well. There are things that are in place to certainly be supporting that from Front Door and an accessibility perspective for housing.
Ms BURNET - Again, looking at those larger than the standard two- or three-bedroom houses? Are you looking at larger housing arrangements?
Mr WILSON - I couldn't answer that, specifically. I'd have to take advice there from Front Door as to what the demands are that are coming through for that.
Ms BURNET - Do you think you could take that on notice, minister, please?
Mr VINCENT - Yes, we could. I was just looking at a brief here regarding Housing Connect and some of the work they do. In talking with Dr Chris Jones, there's a fair bit of excitement about what the portal will be able to produce in the future; there is a lot more data for us to enable us to break things down a lot more. They are looking for that as well. It makes it easier, and we don't like to categorise people in any shape or form because they're all individuals, but it's very important for us to be able to have that breakdown. I'm sure they will have a lot of the data and information on how they do it now, because they do have very detailed information on the size of the homes required, the reasons they need it or co-dependent people that may be living in there. Lots of conversations come to mind at the moment that would indicate they'd be able to supply some good information there.