Page 160 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 23 February 1994
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By allowing more existing tenants to buy ACT Housing Trust stock you change the mix of tenants and their distribution across the ACT. The effect of selling existing stock and purchasing more stock in outer areas would be to change the emphasis from public housing to welfare housing, as Mr Moore emphasised in his remarks in this Assembly this morning. The egalitarian nature of Canberra's public housing does not rest wholly on its dispersal through all suburbs; it rests also on the mix of people accommodated in that housing stock. If purchase after five years of full rent were the norm, that mix would change. All people on low incomes need affordable housing, located in all suburbs and not just in outer areas - a philosophy of public housing distribution in the ACT which I thoroughly agree with.
I feel that more can be done to encourage people who can afford to purchase their own homes to move out into the private marketplace. Those who find it financially difficult to make this move do have assistance available to them in the form of Commissioner for Housing loans. Problems do not exist in finding properties for sale in most areas and, if the market is to dictate purchase prices, then this amendment Bill offers no advantage to a trust tenant who wishes to purchase their rental home over a person in the private rental market who decides to buy in the local area they have come to know. What it does do is reduce the stock available to the trust for future rental accommodation and redevelopment. Mr Connolly has mentioned some of the redevelopments that the Housing Trust has done in recent times. Another one well noted in the ACT is the Aubrey Tow redevelopment in Ainslie, which fulfils the requirements of a modern housing authority, providing its tenants with modern, well-designed and appropriate accommodation in a central location.
There will always be a need for housing stock in older areas, for reasons of access to services and facilities by people who are financially or physically disadvantaged. If housing stock in, say, Deakin, Hughes and Garran is allowed to be sold, how will families needing close proximity to hospital facilities at Woden be housed, for example? Claiming that selling Housing Trust properties will enable housing to be purchased in newer areas disregards the needs of people eligible for trust assistance. It has been proven by experience in New South Wales that this approach is dangerous and can create problems for tenants who are left in isolated communities, with large distances to travel to services which are well established in older areas. It also led, in the early 1980s, to the ludicrous situation where the New South Wales Housing Commission had to spot purchase high value and therefore extremely expensive land in inner suburbs to meet its commitments under the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement.
The ACT Council of Social Service has expressed the opinion that the lower the family income, the greater the need for easy access to facilities such as bus services, medical services and other facilities. Even without action of the kind proposed by this Bill, many low income families will end up being accommodated by the Housing Trust in outer areas and will put their names on a transfer list to allow them eventually to move closer to their support networks. The question can be asked: If inner suburban housing is sold off, will the trust still be able to meet the needs of these people? Once the assets are gone, they are gone. Eventually, just as happened in New South Wales, the trust would find itself having to purchase inner urban properties for housing stock. What is being lost in Mr Cornwell's amendment Bill is the idea that Housing Trust stock is a long-term asset. The average tenancy of a Housing Trust property is 11 years. In some cases tenancies may last for many decades; but at the end of the equation the trust still owns these assets which can be redeveloped, re-leased or converted for the benefit of trust clients.
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