The number of public housing residents in the ACT has dropped by more than 1000 people over the past five years, as just over 3000 applicants remain on the territory's waitlist for public housing.
There were 21,004 residents in public housing at the end of the 2020-21 financial year, which was down by 477 on the year before.
But this number has dropped even further over the past 10 months, there are now only 20,690 residents in the territory's public housing.
Figures released by the ACT government show the number of public housing residents was 1194 fewer than five years ago.
The ACT government has attributed a decline to smaller households living in public housing but the territory's opposition has hit out saying the decline showed the government's pledge to grow public housing was not working.
The government has promised to deliver more than 400 new public housing properties in the five years to 2025 alongside 600 affordable properties. The government has also pledged to renew another 1000 existing properties.
The numbers were released in a response to a question on notice from recent annual report hearings. This response showed there were 791 people who left public housing last year as they moved to a private dwelling.
There were only two residents evicted from public housing last financial year. Overall, there were 395 new residents in the territory's public housing properties last year.
The ACT government said there has been a 5 per cent decline in the average household size for public housing, down from 2.12 to 2.01 people. A government spokeswoman also said there was an underutilisation of public housing.
"We are aware that the ACT has a high underutilisation rate of public housing from the recent report on government services data and this can be caused by children moving out of their family home," the spokeswoman said.
"This can impact the ACT's waiting list, particularly for larger families."
While the number of public housing residents has decreased, there was an increase in residents of community housing properties.
There were 926 residents in community housing properties in the ACT last year, which was a net increase of 35 people on the previous year.
Public housing properties are managed by the ACT government whereas community housing providers are run by community housing providers.
The total number of residents across both public housing and community housing properties in the ACT was 21,930 at the end of 2020-21, but this was still a drop of 442 people on the previous year.
The number of public housing properties in Canberra has also declined. At the end of last financial year there were 11,595 public housing properties, down from 11,704 in the previous year.
That number has decreased further over this financial year. As of February 28 there were 11,525 social housing properties in the ACT. The ACT government is estimating this will increase to 11,576 by the end of the current financial year.
The government said the number of properties was expected to decline due to the fact the public housing renewal program was partly self-funded. A response to a question on notice said fluctuation is expected until the expected end of the program in 2025.
"The self-funded component relies on sourcing approximately 1000 sites for redevelopment and sale from within the existing program," a response said.
"As a result, an initial decrease in the total portfolio count is required, before it can rise; as properties must be demolished and sold before new properties can be delivered."
Opposition housing spokesman Mark Parton, who asked the questions on notice, said he was staggered when he saw the response. He said the decline was evidence the government was struggling to grow public housing stock.
"At a time when this town was descending into one of its worst housing affordability crises, when the private market ceased being an option and when the public housing waitlist grew, the number of residents in public housing declined," he said.
"When I first saw that it left me a bit speechless ... what the government is doing in this space it is not working.
"Given the movement in housing affordability at this time it is almost indefensible that we could get to a year-by-year comparison of almost 500 dwellings."
ACT Council of Social Service chief executive Emma Campbell said there had been a lack of action from both the ACT and federal government to ease housing stress and provide additional social housing.
Dr Campbell said an independent review of the ACT's housing strategy was needed.
"Despite an urgent need for social housing - the ACT had a shortfall of more than 3000 social dwellings and more than 2000 Canberrans experiencing homelessness last year - the number of social houses available in the ACT is declining," she said.
"There are fewer social dwellings today than there were in 2018, when the ACT Housing Strategy was launched. Meanwhile, almost 3000 households languish on the ACT's social housing waiting list.
"These figures show that there has been an increase of just 133 community housing dwellings since the launch of the Housing Strategy. Community housing providers are able to deliver significant numbers of dwellings if they are supported.
"We need to enable and empower community housing providers through access to affordable land, rezoning and rates exemptions."
