Page 1364 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009
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The message from the Prime Minister could not be clearer. We need to do something about homelessness and this is a down payment of 20,000 houses nationally, which should get us in just two years halfway to our target of halving homelessness by 2020. It is also about jobs, constructing homes which will build this nation and stop unemployment in the construction industry as a result of the worldwide crisis.
Let us be clear about what we are doing here. This is a response to homelessness; it is not about community housing. It is about homelessness; it is not about affordable housing. It is about homelessness. And it is not about crisis accommodation; it is about homelessness. It is about where the response to homelessness sits. The SAAP providers—and this is something I think members do not know—have been voluble about their preference for a transition from crisis accommodation to public housing as a permanent solution. This is our challenge. Where does it sit? Who has the viable organisational structure to deliver?
The Prime Minister has told us to spend the money, build the houses, build them with six-star ratings, create those jobs or lose the money. Time is of the essence and we have acted accordingly. We have already identified a great provider of affordable housing in the ACT, CHC Affordable Housing, and they are supporting their financial growth through the direct transfer of stock, ongoing provision of new housing, and there are one-off payments and traditional funding as well as access to a $50 million revolving line of credit at government rates—ACT AAA rating. They are yet to put the runs on the board.
We thought we had some confidence in other large providers. They do not instil in me a great confidence either. In fact, handing back 200 units of the easiest piece of real estate management in the ACT’s history is not engendering confidence in this little black duck, let me tell you. And the others are not of such a size that they have a viable organisational structure to be able to cope with it yet—but let us talk about building that capacity at another time.
Our Treasury have worked closely on their financial modelling and their business plan and they are contracted to achieve significant growth in affordable rental and affordable home ownership. In return for this support, it is committed to more than doubling its size in four years and the growth to 1,000 properties in 10 years. That is an ambitious growth target for CHC. We will see at the end of the day, through our initiative, an extra 1,000 units in the community housing sector.
The ACT has already legislated a regulatory framework and is preparing the operational guidelines to enable registration of providers by midyear. I welcome the commitment to increase the range of housing providers and products, and in this area the ACT has already taken significant initiatives. We have been working closely with specialty tenancy managers, including those focusing on young people, people with a disability, men coming out of institutions, people moving out of primary homelessness and women and children escaping domestic violence. We have provided support to those housing providers to develop housing and support policies and procedures, including assisting them to become accredited. And we have embedded specialist staff from Housing ACT to build their organisational capacity. We have started the process of capacity building.
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