NSW minister concedes social housing situation ‘desperate’ as waitlist for most in need doubles in a decade

The NSW housing minister, Rose Jackson, says the government accepts the state has a social housing ‘problem’. New data reveals there are now 7,573 people on the ‘priority’ waiting list. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

New South Wales’s priority social housing waitlist has doubled in less than a decade and surged by 1,000 to 7,573 over the past year, as wait times continue to rise across the state.

New data from the Department of Communities and Justice, to be released on Friday, will reveal the extent of a crisis that the housing minister, Rose Jackson, has conceded is “desperate” and “confronting”.