Page 1008 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 24 March 2015
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As at today, the ACT government owns 208 houses and is overseeing the security and maintenance of these properties. Comparing this to the October to December quarter last year, 739 home owners had opted in, 151 offers had been made, 56 of these had been accepted and the ACT owned five properties. This shows how busy the last few months has been for the task force. It also illustrates that, while there are, and will always likely remain despite our best efforts, a small number of home owners who remain fundamentally against the buyback program, the majority of home owners are seeing it for what it is—a lifeline to move on to another property in as fair and responsive a way as possible.
With 60 per cent of home owners, and this number is growing every day, taking part in the program, this is why I have said publically on a number of occasions that the buyback program will not be changing, and I reiterate that again today. Also, once the buyback closes on 30 June 2015 there will not be a better offer from the ACT government. I state this to provide certainty for those already in and through the program. I also do not want home owners sitting back and not engaging with the task force as they think pressure will see the program change or that another option from the ACT government will come. It will not, and it cannot for the affordability of the territory and to provide equity and fairness for home owners.
The task force continues to support home owners through this challenging time. This includes the provision of financial assistance, initially as emergency assistance and now the administration of the relocation assistance grant which supports home owners to move to safer accommodation. In the period between 1 October and 31 December 2014 more than $1.5 million in financial assistance was provided to home owners through 345 payments. Of these, 94 were relocation assistance grant payments. In addition, $738,000 was spent on 544 asbestos assessments of affected properties. To date, 1,015 asbestos assessments have been undertaken at a cost of $1.3 million; 764 financial assistance payments have been made to home owners totalling $4.1 million; and of these 294 have been relocation assistance grant payments.
As well as financial assistance, home owners are being supported through a one-on-one approach by a team of experienced senior personal support team members. The team works to assist home owners through information provision and linking with other service providers and government to ensure they have the support and information to make informed decisions through the buyback program. Each home owner has an assigned case officer to ensure continuity of support so home owners only need to tell their story once. The team work with hundreds of home owners each week. At the start of this year they increased their accessibility by relocating to the suburban centres of Dickson, Woden, Kippax and Tuggeranong to provide greater face-to-face engagement support.
By connecting with providers such as the Belconnen, Woden and Northside community services, the task force is linking home owners to other existing services, providing greater holistic support. Since the community-based task force support was launched, there have been in excess of 270 visits by home owners across these sites. This does not include the visits to the task force’s central office in the city or email and phone contacts.
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