Routine maintenance jobs, like fixing a leaking roof or rotten stairs and painting, are out of reach for a growing number of cash-strapped Queenslanders as labour shortages and material price hikes bite.
The situation has been compounded by the February floods in south-east Queensland and the ongoing deluge in New South Wales, adding further pressure to an already stressed building industry.
It has prompted the Council On The Ageing (COTA) to call on the Queensland government to prioritise funding in the next state budget and extend home maintenance subsidies to those who need it most.
"The cost of steel and timber and other supplies have gone through the roof … and that's also impacting on the repair side of things too and there's also a shortage of skilled tradespeople," COTA Queensland chief executive Mark Tucker-Evans said.
"That could lead to issues around people being ripped off by unqualified tradespeople."
DIY for home owners hit by delays and rising costs
When single mum-of-two Nicole Retallack bought her older-style timber and brick home in North Rockhampton a year ago, she knew it needed work and regular maintenance.
But she did not count on long delays and costs for materials and tradespeople and has had to adopt a do-it-yourself attitude.
"You have to be handy," she said after fixing her toilet with a spanner.
"If I had to wait to get someone here, even in an emergency, for example urgent plumbing and such, it can be weeks."
Ms Retallack would love to put in a new driveway and a front fence for security, but it is now on the backburner after getting quotes of approximately $45,000.
$500 a year will not cover many essential repair jobs
Mr Tucker-Evans said elderly people were at greater safety risk living in homes that needed essential repairs.
He said the state government's Home Assist Secure scheme did an adequate job funding minor repairs for eligible people – those aged 60 and over, people with a disability or who could not undertake or pay for critical home maintenance without assistance.
But he said the subsidy was limited to $500 per year and needed a significant boost to stop people from falling through the cracks.
"One of the challenges is that you need to actually hold a current Commonwealth government pensioner concession card to access it and not everybody does," he said.
"If you're looking at painting a three-bedroom Queenslander, that could run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
"The Home Assist Secure service isn't aimed at that sort of thing. It's about minor repairs, rather than major repairs. So there needs to be a fresh look at how we actually support people to continue to live at home where they want to age."
Home Assist to the rescue
Vietnam veteran Nick Quigley has been putting up with badly leaking taps and banging water pipes at his North Rockhampton home for years, until a neighbour told him about Home Assist Secure.
A plumbing team fixed his taps and pipes in February and Mr Quigley only had to pay for parts.
"They were brilliant," the 76-year-old said.
"I'm not a person who asks for help, but those taps were driving me crazy."
He also called on Home Assist to help with a tree trimming job that was beyond him.
Household repair grants need to be increased
In 2020, as part of a pandemic building stimulus program, the Queensland government offered grants up to $5,000 for seniors needing minor household repairs.
A total of 2,814 applications were approved totalling $10 million, with an additional $1.52 million in customer contributions.
In Rockhampton, 85 applications were approved at a cost of $309,522, while the highest number of approvals were in Brisbane (406), followed by the Gold Coast (382) and Fraser Coast (295).
Mr Tucker-Evans said the high demand in such a small time frame showed the funding scheme needed to continue and increase.
"There are some regions, like Rockhampton, that are really in dire need of support. But it needs to be funded by both the Commonwealth and state government, as well as local government," he said.
State spells out its housing support action plan
A spokesperson from the Queensland Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy did not respond directly to CODA's call for increased funding for essential repairs but said in a statement:
"In 2020-21, there were more than 205,000 forms of housing assistance provided to Queensland households or individuals, including emergency housing, social housing, private market assistance, Home Assist Secure and homelessness services. This assistance continues to be provided in 2022.
"As at 1 July 2021, the department had allocated $122 million (GST exclusive) to 176 specialist homelessness services (SHS) across Queensland, including almost $5.7 million (GST exclusive) to seven SHS in the Rockhampton region.
"In June, in response to the unprecedented housing market conditions, we launched the Queensland Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2021–2025 backed by a $2.9 billion investment, including the establishment of a $1 billion Housing Investment Fund which is the largest concentrated investment in social housing in Queensland's history and will see the commencement of 10,000 new homes over the life of the Housing Strategy."
One in 10 Aussies living in unsafe housing
Housing research by three universities in 2016, which included the University of Adelaide, found almost a quarter of a million Australians were living in poor or very poor quality housing, including more than 100,000 residing in dwellings regarded as derelict.
Professor Emma Baker, from The University of Adelaide, said the situation had since worsened, citing findings from the 2018 Healthy Cities study which surveyed 4,500 households across three states.
"Until now, this Australian idea of their home is their castle meant we never saw inside the front door before.
"We're just about to roll into the field with the biggest survey of Australian housing conditions that's ever been done [involving 25,000 homes]."
Warning signs cannot be ignored
Mr Tucker-Evans warned older home owners could face bigger problems down the track if they did not jump onto their minor house issues quickly.
"If houses are not fixed, people might in fact find themselves homeless,'' he said.
"We're really concerned that these people need support to enable them to continue to live at home.
"If they can't live there, they may end up in a residential aged care facility, and certainly the majority of older people that we talk to don't want that.
"They want to continue to live in their own home."
