Page 3150 - Week 10 - Thursday, 18 October 2007
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stability and contributes to people’s capacity to self-manage their mental illness. Accommodation, therefore, is considered by the standing committee to be one of a suite of individualised support services which should work together to assist people with mental illness and their carers to maintain their individual wellbeing and live, contribute and participate fully within their community.
The importance of integrated and collaborative service responses is recognised by the standing committee. The need for close working relationships between accommodation providers, with particular emphasis on Housing ACT, and mental health early intervention and support services provided by ACT Health and non-government providers, forms the basis of a number of the report’s recommendations. It should be noted, Mr Speaker, that while housing and accommodation providers can play a key role in forming a network of early identification and other support mechanisms for people experiencing mental illness, the primary need is for clinical service provision, and that remains the responsibility of Mental Health ACT. These recommendations are consistent with the Canberra plan; “Breaking the cycle”, the ACT homelessness strategy; and the Mental Health ACT strategy and action plan. The ACT government’s response provides evidence of achievements in realising their key objectives.
The government is particularly concerned about easing housing stress for medium and low-income households so that all members of our community, irrespective of their income or personal circumstances, can access affordable appropriate housing. It is for this reason that the government introduced its affordable housing action plan on 12 April 2007 and signalled that the provision of affordable housing will be a priority for the government over the coming years.
The affordable housing action plan is designed to help Canberrans at all points on the accommodation spectrum, from homebuyers and private renters to those in public and community housing. Key initiatives in the plan include increasing the supply of affordable land to the market; regular englobo land sales; over-the-counter sales of affordable housing blocks; streamlining land release and planning approval systems; providing new house and land packages priced between $200,000 and $300,000; a major expansion of community housing that will deliver an additional 480 affordable dwellings over five years; making more effective and targeted use of public housing; an initiative through institutional investors to increase the supply of private rental dwellings by 200 to 400 homes in the first instance; and ensuring the supply of sufficient land to meet the increasing demand for aged accommodation, land rent and shared equity schemes, including for public and community housing tenants and targeted stamp duty concessions.
Mr Speaker, the ACT government response I am tabling today contains detailed information on the implementation of public housing reform, which has delivered a more effective, timely housing response to those most in need in the community, including people with mental illness. Housing ACT has also implemented additional measures to ensure that it remains the post-crisis response for people who require housing assistance and that appropriate community-based support services are available to assist tenants to achieve and maintain sustainable housing outcomes.
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