Under the Playford Government, the South Australian Housing Trust was formed in 1936 and was the first state housing authority in Australia. The Trust was responsible for providing low-cost, affordable rental housing for workers and their families - not the unemployed and poor. It was considered that provision of such housing would allow workers' wages to be kept low in South Australia, and so encourage the development of secondary industry in the state. During a period of severe housing shortages, the Housing Trust constructed mass-produced cottages, enabling building costs and rentals to be kept low.

The News (12 January 1937) described the first meeting of the 'newly formed Housing Trust, appointed to provide cheap houses for workers', and included a photograph of the first members of the Trust: Sir William Goodman (chairman 1937-44), Archibald McInnes, John Sinclair, Sir (John) Lavington Bonython, Ferdinand Drew and James Henderson.

From 3 July 2006 the State Government's housing agencies - South Australian Housing Trust, Aboriginal Housing Authority and South Australian Community Housing Authority - have been brought together to form Housing SA in order to provide more effective services to the community.

Chronological history of the South Australian Housing Trust 1936-, Adelaide: South Australian Housing Trust, [2005]

Marsden, Susan. Business, Charity & Sentiment: The South Australian Housing Trust 1936-1986, Netley, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1986

Marsden, Susan. Constructing Playford's city [manuscript]: the South Australian Housing Trust and the transformation of Adelaide, 1936-1966, Ph.D. Thesis, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, 1995

South Australian Housing Trust. Annual report of the South Australian Housing Trust, Adelaide: Govt. Printer, 1937-

Housing SA [South Australian Government]