Just two public housing dwellings on agenda for Tamworth, despite huge waitlists in New England North West

The five-year-old $22 billion Communities Plus program has built just 391 new social homes, according to media reports last week.

But Homes North chief executive officer Maree McKenzie said none of the 23,000 social housing units were planned for regional areas like Tamworth. Instead, most were going to be built in high-density metropolitan areas.

"We need other options for regional areas," she said.

There are just two dwellings, both in Oxley Vale, that she could think of which are currently funded to be added to the city's affordable housing stock.

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Tamworth Family Support Service manager Lynda Townsend said the lack of attention is despite a waiting list that is actually longer in the rural community.

"Yes there is an incredible amount of housing shortfall in these areas," she said.

"We're looking at 10 to 12 year wait-lists in some cases."

The service helped 305 people who were either homeless or at risk of homelessness in the last six months, Ms Townsend told the Leader. Nearly half, 140, were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, a disproportionate rate.

Ms Townsend said the support service also has an "extensive wait-list", driven by a tightening private housing market.

Clients can wait up to three months to see a caseworker, she said.

"The private rental market in Tamworth, specifically, is not always, but in a lot of cases inaccessible for people who need social housing or affordable rentals," she said.

"There's an enormous misconception out in the community that - 'oh if you can't afford it, get a job'.

"It's very difficult to get and maintain employment when you don't have a home to live in."

Often public housing development is limited by land options.

Homes North would like to see housing corporation land turned over for affordable housing, Ms McKenzie said.

Crown land could also be used for housing, but turning it over often gets bogged down in bureaucracy and becomes uneconomic, she said.

A simpler solution can be to buy new land - but well-located land tends to be expensive, and cheaper land can leave poorer people with limited transport options.

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The easiest option of all is to require developers to add affordable housing to new estates - or apartment developments.

But this process, known as 'inclusionary zoning', hasn't proven popular with NSW governments, at the local or state level.

"It's an excellent idea. There's a lot of reluctance in regional areas to do that. A lot of reluctance everywhere - it's only been done in pockets in Sydney - but I notice there's more pressure to that in Sydney' Ms McKenzie said.

"I think the regional councils are reticent to put any obligations on developers because they don't want to scare them off. That reticence will come at a cost."

Communities Plus is a plan plan to build 23,000 social homes to replace 17,000 demolished social homes.

A report by ACOSS and UNSW Poverty and Inequality Partnership said the NSW and South Australian state governments "have pledged little or no post-COVID social housing construction stimulus".

The NSW government builds public housing through a number of different programs.

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