As a previous accommodation manager in Hobart I’m at a loss Hobart has swept lack of housing under the carpet for so long.

My guesthouse closed because of a woollies carpark took half the building and after 121/2 years was given 1 week notice to vacate. I housed 182,000 people in that time. Did Hobart care? No. Down it came and up went a 12 story carpark. This was 2007 and today with shame Hobart is the only Australian capital city without a hospital annex for patients and their families. Yes McDonalds has accommodation for $1/year rent and charges $89/ night up front and throws people out in the street when they no longer can pay. Does Hobart care? No. I used to give these people money so they could go back and stay. John Opie house you say? Can be accessed via social work in office hours with 3 flights of stairs and payments even if you’re destitute.

Holleydene was closed some years ago. Hobart lost 78 bedrooms overnight which meant almost 200 beds each and every night were lost. Did Hobart care? No. Remember Allports in Nth Hobart which housed 80 people/night? Bought by Colony 47 and then $650,000 spent on turning into office space. Did Hobart care? No.

Today is all about why doesn’t politicians do something. Why should they when the people of Hobart don’t care at all.

I remember the Red Cross roadhouse being shut down on Christmas Eve make room for Wapping developments. They fed 150 people everyday with a hot meal. Did Hobart care when they shut down? No.

When taking keys over to ICU in the small hours I would find teenagers released 48 hrs after being locked and drugged in the psych ward and then just told to go with no help or care taken. I would take these kids back to my guesthouse and give them a bed. Never any trouble. Who helps them now? Does Hobart care?

When I opened Argyle Guest House in June 1995 a barrister from Brisbane stayed and he was doing a thesis on homelessness and told me Hobart had/has the highest per capita homelessness in Australia. Does Hobart care? Do you care?

Housing Tasmania currently has 70 vacant houses. Boarded up for whatever reason. Why can’t the ATO offer tax credits for tradies to repair these houses say at double their hourly rate so if a tradie does 10/wk they would get a 20 hr tax credit when they do their quarterly tax/bas statements. eg 10 hrs @ $80/hr would mean $800 tax credit. No money would change hands and would come straight from federal tax reserves. Could be done Australia wide and Hobart could implement this on the stroke of a pen. Today. Why? Because even though I was evicted for caring on 30/09/2007 and changing my phone 5 times I still get calls for a bed.

Why? Because Hobart I care.
Ruth Howie