Page 1289 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 11 April 2018
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thank Minister Fitzharris for making the commitment to ensuring that this is carried out.
Amendment agreed to.
Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.
Public housing—supply
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.20): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes that:
(a) the Public Housing Renewal Program has successfully rehoused public housing tenants in high quality and accessible housing;
(b) approximately 38 percent of the public housing portfolio is more than 40 years old, as such, the need for further investment in housing renewal will continue;
(c) there are currently 1730 households waiting to access public housing. The average waiting time for applicants ranges from 274 days for those deemed eligible for priority housing and 983 days for standard applicants;
(d) since 2010-11 there has been a reduction of 387 public housing units in the ACT, dropping from 12 209 to 11 822 in that period;
(e) in 1991 public housing made up 12.4 percent of the ACT’s housing stock. By 2001 this had dropped to 10.2 percent. Public housing currently makes up 7.1 percent of the ACT’s housing stock;
(f) the Suburban Land Agency has identified 143 dwelling sites for public housing in 2017-18. During this period 4120 dwelling sites have been scheduled for release by the ACT Government, meaning that only 3.5 percent of this new housing stock will be public housing;
(g) public housing in the ACT is highly targeted, with 99 percent of allocations made to people in greatest need, against a national average of 74 percent. This results in a high level of rental rebate ($142 million in 2016-17) and lower ability to cross-subsidise Housing ACT’s operations from own source revenue; and
(h) the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA), currently being negotiated between the Commonwealth and State and Territory governments, will include a multilateral agreement as well as bilateral agreements, known as supplementary agreements. The legislation for the NHHA, currently before the Federal Parliament, notes that supplementary agreements require State and Territory governments to develop a housing strategy that “indicates the level of housing supply needed to respond to projected housing demand, and outlines the reforms and initiatives that contribute to meeting this need”; and
(2) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) commit to growing social housing stock to at least maintain a minimum of 7.1 percent of the ACT’s housing stock as social housing, ie housing that
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