NSW Shadow Housing Minister Rose Jackson joins Wagga candidate Keryn Foley to make housing NSW election pitch

In Wagga on Monday morning, Ms Jackson met with Labor candidate Keryn Foley and spruiked the party's suite of policies to address the "neglect" of regional housing.

"Regional housing is in crisis right now," Ms Jackson said.

"We've seen house prices out of reach for so many people; rental increases of double digits in many regional towns; vacancy rates close to one per cent. It's just too hard to find and afford a place to rent.

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"We know in communities like Wagga Wagga, and unfortunately across regional NSW, are seeing a real spike in people experiencing homelessness, so we'll be meeting with those organisations that are on the frontline."

The state government's regional housing taskforce outlined the state would need an additional 127,000 homes would be needed in order to address the supply shortage expected over the next 10 years.

The number of people experiencing housing stress or homelessness is rising at an alarming rate. The Daily Advertiser reported in January the local social housing wait list had risen from 496 to 658 in 12 months. With average wait times about three years, the supply of social housing for people who can't afford rentals on the open market is a particular cause for concern.

Labor Candidate for Wagga Keryn Foley said she was speaking with the shadow minister about the issues locals were facing with housing and infrastructure.

"I have people coming to see me that are paying about 42 per cent of their wages on rent," Ms Foley said.

"They're having to decide between paying their gas bill, and putting food on the table, so we want to look at innovative solutions our community is coming up with to help with that.

"Our food relief and care organisations will be part of our stakeholder meetings today."

Ms Jackson said that in addition to meeting with local front line organisations to determine a path forward, Labor already had policies in place that would address the local shortage of housing and homelessness services.

"We have five year stable funding for homelessness organisations ... A lot of the organisations we're meeting with today will benefit directly from that funding,"

"We are creating a new centralised social housing agency in NSW that is going to deliver more social and affordable housing.

"We are committed to a suite of rental reforms. We're going to abolish no grounds eviction, we're going to stop rent bidding, we're going to allow pets in rentals, we're going to establish a rental commissioner."

Planning economics expert Marcus Spiller wrote in February that our housing woes will not be solved by more "trickle down" thinking; The biggest historical builder of affordable housing - the government - needed to reconsider their role in the housing market.

According to Dr Spiller, more "affordable" rentals on the private market will not solve the rental crisis.

"Had Australia continued to build social housing at the average annual rate indicated in the 30 years till 1985, there would be more than 330,000 additional social housing units in service across the country today," he said.

"That is almost the same as the total existing social housing stock as counted in the 2021 Census.

"The gamble conceived as part of the 1980s micro-economic reform process looked promising but has proven ruinously costly in terms of lost productivity and social cohesion. It is time for a different approach."

Ms Jackson said Labor were taking the election seriously, and were aware of specific issues regional communities face, agreeing election commitments too often favour cities.

"We are coming into communities to hear directly from them about the experiences they're having right now - what they want from a future government,"

"Labor has a lot to say about how we can support people into stable, secure housing."

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