Page 756 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 1 May 2007
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The expansion of community housing will see Community Housing Canberra, CHC, become a major provider of affordable housing in the ACT. It is a not-for-profit company that operates both as a community housing asset manager and as a provider of affordable housing. The government is providing Community Housing Canberra with an injection of equity of $40 million through the final transfer of title of 135 properties, already under CHC’s control, which the company will leverage to increase the amount of available affordable housing.
The ACT government will also provide CHC with land at market prices, a revolving $50 million loan facility at government borrowing rates, $3.2 million in capital and a $250,000 annual capital subsidy for three years. In return, CHC will develop an additional 500 affordable dwellings over the next five years, increasing to more than 1,100 over the next 10 years. CHC will also offer a shared equity program to eligible tenants.
The reforms I have outlined today will greatly assist Canberrans who are most in need of housing support and I commend them to the Assembly.
MRS BURKE (Molonglo): I seek leave to make a statement, Mr Speaker.
Leave granted.
MRS BURKE: I thank the minister for permitting me to stand today as I want to make sure that this item will not be hanging around on the notice paper and we will get the program moving forward. Overall, my comments on what the government is doing will be positive, simply because much of it is Liberal policy. That has to be said because I think that this is what the public want. They want to see the Assembly, as in all of the 17 members, whether they be in government or in opposition, actually working together. I think that it is a positive that the minister, since assuming the portfolio from the former minister, Bill Wood, is carrying on some of the good work that Mr Wood began.
I understand the minister’s dilemma in saying that there are competing priorities and diverse needs. I think he is saying that the housing forums and consultations that have been held since 2005 have probably answered some of ACTCOSS’s concerns regarding lack of consultation. Maybe the minister can clear that one up with ACTCOSS. I have to say though, and I am not kicking the minister, that we have been waiting a long time to see something come about and happen. I understand that things cannot happen overnight. We do welcome these long-awaited measures. The system has been inequitable for quite some time. It is outdated, outmoded, and it really is very pleasing to see these changes being made at long last.
I have to make a comment on the waiting lists. I think the changes target those still in need and at the wrong end of the scale but, hopefully, the system will work itself out. The minister alluded to the waiting list turnover and the time in which people are being housed and so forth. I do remain concerned, minister, about the number of people who were removed from the list due to the changes to the eligibility criteria. I am just not sure what has happened to those people.
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