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Public housing lobby rejects SA push toward private rental market

More public housing needs to be be built rather than moving South Australian low-income tenants into private rental properties, the Housing Trust Tenants Association says.

A review of government agency Housing SA made more than a dozen recommendations including imposing employment or training obligations on prospective tenants as a condition of qualifying for housing.

The triennial review also urged moving more of those on the public housing waiting list to the private housing market.

Tenants Association secretary Julie Macdonald said moving tenants to more expensive private rental properties would not work.

"The way to solve it is to build more public housing and to make housing affordability and buying schemes more accessible to our tenants and to people on low incomes," she said.

"We're concerned about the detail and about what's going to happen to people that are transitioned into private rental that can't afford to pay private rental market rent rates."

Ms Macdonald said she was worried the State Government was considering only those in categories 1 or 2 for public housing.

Category 3 accounted for more than half of those on the current waiting list of about 21,000.

The SA Government said it was supportive of many of the review recommendations, but it would be premature to look at Housing SA rent structures and guidelines until there had been a Federal Government decision about ongoing funding of the sector.

It said it supported in principle a proposal for a multi-provider housing system.