The ruins of a fire-ravaged government house which has sat vacant and virtually unsecured for almost a year will remain standing until at least March before the block is cleared.
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A house fire at 12 John Close, Gilmore on December 31 last year left the three-bedroom government-owned house uninhabitable.
In the months since, temporary fencing has been the only security around the house, which still contains items belonging to its previous occupants.
Neighbours who spoke to the Sunday Canberra Times this week said there had been little activity at the site in the months since, while children and others had accessed the ruins through the unlocked fencing.
In response to questions this week, a spokeswoman for the ACT government said a Programmed contractor had been urgently scheduled to attend the site and inspect the safety and suitability of the temporary fencing.
Housing ACT was currently completing a tender process to knock down and redevelop the site for public housing, the spokeswoman said.
Crown leases in the ACT require lessees to construct and maintain buildings within certain specified time frames, with provisions for the ACT government to take action when lessees fail to maintain their blocks.
But the crown lease for the Gilmore site, held by the Commissioner for Social Housing, has no set time frames associated with issuing a notice mandating the remedying or removal of the building dependent on its state, the ACT government spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman also declined to say when the block had been handed back to Housing ACT following a police investigation into the cause of the fire.
The ACT government has said it aims to build 400 public housing properties over the next five years, but concedes there will be challenges with land availability and sector capacity.
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More than 100 properties were added to Housing ACT's overall stock in the 2019-20 financial year.
At June 30, there were 11,704 social housing properties in the ACT, up by 122 from the year before.
A Community Services Directorate spokeswoman told The Canberra Times in November that 256 properties had been added to the portfolio, but 134 had been removed.
In August, a report prepared by Homelessness Australia and Everybody's Home found Canberra had a social housing shortfall of 3000 properties, with 1600 people homeless in the territory.
Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
