Page 814 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I am pleased to have had the opportunity to discuss Oaks Estate today. I know there are frustrations, but there are also frustrations in other parts of Canberra. That has been a challenge for me in becoming a minister in this place. You cannot get everything done that you want to, but our job is to keep striving to achieve these things and to make sure that we keep listening so that we know what the concerns are, to try to get out to as many of the community meetings as possible so that we can hear these things directly and then to do our best to resolve the issues that our community faces.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Minister for Housing, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Community Services, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Women and Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Social Inclusion and Equality) (12.09): I am pleased today to speak to this motion and support Mr Gentleman’s amendment. Quite clearly, the government is active in both the planning and public housing aspects of Oaks Estate, and with very meaningful results. Our public housing community in Oaks Estate is close knit and strongly engaged in community life. The public housing properties at Oaks Estate are an important part of our housing stock, and they are home to tenants from very diverse backgrounds and life experiences. There are 78 public housing properties at Oaks Estate, which is around 35 per cent of the housing, and they represent a significant proportion. These properties tend to be multi-unit complexes built on a scale appropriate to the size of the community. The properties are maintained by Housing ACT and the tenants are actively supported. Where issues are identified, whether by housing tenants or other residents, the government has responded.
Key to our response has been head leasing a number of properties to St Vincent de Paul to provide community-based support for people who have homes in Oaks Estate, and Mr Rattenbury has already talked about some of the work that has been done out there. First commencing in 2009, St Vincent de Paul provides tenancy and case management for more than 50 per cent of the public housing properties. The model provided by St Vincent de Paul focuses on place-based support. Case managers work on site from a dedicated community room and a drop-in centre. St Vincent de Paul also provides an outreach service to public housing tenants on site. Importantly, each and every social housing tenant in Oaks Estate, not just those at St Vincent de Paul properties, has access to the services. This means more intensive support is available for tenants, and early intervention workers are readily accessible.
Specifically, the supports provided on site are one-to-one case management, community engagement activities, and referrals and connections to other service providers, such as community transport. The on-site services directly mitigate some of the concerns that have been raised about public housing.
In relation to antisocial behaviour, on-site agency presence provides an early intervention response, and St Vincent de Paul has reported that since establishing the on-site presence there has been a notable reduction in crime and violence, and Mr Gentleman provided some figures on that in his speech earlier.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video