Tasmania's community sector has labelled the federal government's renovation grants program a missed opportunity.
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On Thursday, the federal government announced support for the building and construction industry in the form of $25,000 grants for people looking to renovate or build a new home.
The catch was they have to spend $150,000 of their own money and couldn't earn more than $125,000 as a single or $200,000 as a couple.
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The government expects to provide 27,000 grants at a total cost of around $680 million.
Unions Tasmania secretary Jessica Munday said members had reacted cynically to the announcement.
"[Our members] have been raising serious concerns about it being poorly targeted, not at those who need it most and that it being a missed opportunity to kill to birds with one stone," she said.
"They could have supported the construction industry with ongoing work and also used that to address some pretty pressing social issues."
She said more than 27,000 Tasmania's are expected to be out of a job in the June quarter and this grant will do little to help those people.
"The main points that have been coming through are we need social housing, affordable housing, crisis accommodation for homelessness and this doesn't support that at all," Ms Munday said.
"Our members have reacted very cynically to what they see as a potential vote grab not a genuinely targeted needs-based stimulus package."
Federal Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said the government expected the grants to be taken up by first-home buyers. "The best way to keep our tradies on the job is to have a strong pipeline of work for the rest of the year, which is why HomeBuilder is so important," he said.
"Industry experts have said HomeBuilder will unlock between $10 billion and $15 billion of investment in the residential construction industry."
He said people shouldn't forget the federal government waived Tasmania's housing-related debts.
"This alone will mean more than $230 million will be invested in increased social housing in Tasmania," Mr Sukkar said.
"On top of this, the Commonwealth Government spends more than $6 billion each and every year to support Australians in need of housing assistance."
Tasmanian Women's Legal Service chief executive officer Yvette Chetel said the grants program wouldn't help women who have been affected throughout the pandemic.
She said women have been disproportionately affected during the crisis and this grant would do little to create jobs or stability for those in need.
"What we know is that women are bearing the economic brunt of COVID-19, 55 per cent of those that are unemployed because of COVID are women," Ms Chetel said.
"That is predominately because [women] work in retail, the disability sector and sectors that have been really heavily impacted, like hospitality, by COVID-19."
Tasmanian Council of Social Services acting chief executive officer Simone Zell said there is a high level of need for a focus on affordable housing.
"We do think it is a missed opportunity to really get the help more directly to people in need, it doesn't really offer anything in the affordable housing space at all," she said.
"While we do welcome stimulus packages to improve employment, we really like the multiplier effect of also supplying security for our most at need."
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