Real estate agent offers to repair 20 public housing homes for free

Formerly homeless real estate agent spearheads campaign to repair 20 Canberra public housing homes pro bono In short: Jonny Warren, a Canberra real estate agent, wants to renovate or repair 20 properties in the ACT after experiencing homelessness himself earlier in his life. He is calling on the ACT government to support the pro bono project, alongside MLA Thomas Emerson and local homelessness organisations. What's next? The idea has been put to the ACT government, but experts say broader change is needed across the public housing sector. Canberra real estate agent Jonny Warren remembers all too well what it's like to be homeless. Falling in with the "wrong crowd" as a teenager, he found himself addicted to ice and living on the streets. But with help from his family, he managed to kick his addiction and in 2014, began working in real estate. As his career grew, he became involved with a number of charities to raise funds for homelessness, and one evening headed out with the Vinnies Night Patrol in Canberra's city centre. "I saw a young lady with her four-year-old child ... I was just so taken away by that, and that she was sleeping in her car,"Mr Warren said. That encounter, and his own experience with homelessness, has prompted him to spearhead a campaign to renovate 20 of the ACT government's vacant public housing dwellings pro bono. And, he wants to do it all by Christmas. Hundreds of vacant public housing properties There are currently more than 580 vacant public housing dwellings in the ACT, 285 of which need upgrades or maintenance before they can be tenanted. That is despite some 3,650 approved applicants being on Canberra's public housing waitlist. The average wait time for priority housing is more than five months; for standard housing, it's more than five years. Mr Warren wants the government to choose and approve 20 of these vacant homes to be renovated, with the aim to have tenants in them by Christmas. And there is already an army of tradespeople volunteering to help him. "We've got plenty of people helping, but you can never have enough hands," he said. "For something that was just sort of an idea ... to put something out to help the people that are struggling out on the streets, we've just been so overwhelmed with the support." Mr Warren said some of the properties required deep cleaning, while others needed new paint, carpets and tap fittings. "It's not massive works, but they're just houses that are just sitting there and just need those final little touches to get people into these housing properties,"he said. Housing All Australians ACT Chair Jo Farrell welcomed the initiative, but said fixing some properties would not be as simple as "running down to Bunnings and buying 20 litres of paint". "There's a level of dignity and there's a level of quality that needs to be implemented with this," she said. "It's around doing the right thing for the people that want to live there and live there long-term, so they can get their lives back on track." Emerson: Government needs to 'come to the table' Independent MLA Thomas Emerson is backing Mr Warren's plan to have 20 homes renovated by Christmas, and is calling on the government to do the same. "The government's obviously struggling on its own to meet the level of demand we're seeing in our community for safe, secure, subsidised housing," Mr Emerson said. "The first half of this year, our public housing waitlist has grown by more than 150 approved applicants, while the number of vacancies has grown by more than 50. Make that make sense." Mr Emerson said he believed the housing crisis required "a whole of community response" but that the ACT government also needed to "come to the table". "It's insane that we have 588 public housing properties that are vacant right now, while we have thousands of Canberrans in desperate need of public housing," he said. "Almost 300 of the properties that are vacant need maintenance or upgrades in order to be made liveable. "And I think it's incredible that you've got Canberrans who are seeing the problem and saying, look, we're willing to come to the table and actually offer a solution." Adequate housing 'a society issue' Ms Farrell said Mr Warren's project was just one element of a wider conversation we need to have about the ACT's ageing stock of public housing. "The big conversation with ACT government is how can we actually work together collaboratively between community and industry and not have vacant properties and then have someone sleeping out in weather like this," Ms Farrell said. "It's a society issue, so we can't just keep laying blame at politicians' feet or particular community sectors. "We all have to step up and understand our accountability and responsibility with these issues that are affecting us and then that way we can all do our part." Ms Farrell also rejected the notion that Canberra's building industry could not keep up with the level of work that was needed. "We have a lot of tradespeople who are willing [and] ready," she said. "So if there's going to be a rhetoric around 'we don't have the skill set', we're not looking in the right place and you're not talking to the right people." Corinne Dobson from ACT Shelter said the project would provide hope for the Canberrans waiting "for years" to access housing. "We think this is a really welcome initiative and something that we would hope the government can make happen," she said. "We know it's not a substitute for the government actually improving their processes, increasing investment and really making improvements to the condition of public housing." Mr Warren said he and his team "have got a meeting [with the government] tomorrow morning, which I hope is the final step". "We'll start small and get those 20 numbers and the 20 houses and then if we achieve that and do it with ease and with all the support that we do have, then we can shoot a little bit higher," he said. "Our goal is hopefully next year to get 100 homes and 100 people off the streets." The ACT government has been contacted for comment.