Page 2550 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 June 2005
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Housing stress is a key measure. A household is deemed to be in housing stress if it is in the bottom 40 per cent of the distribution of household incomes with its occupants paying more than 30 per cent of household income on housing costs. The task force, comprising senior people from across government, industry and the community sector, submitted its final report in December 2002. The task force submitted a range of recommendations across six strategic areas. These included development and expansion of public housing, encouragement of partnerships between the public and private sectors, improvement of access to private rental housing, support for home ownership, amendments to the planning system to encourage affordable housing and increasing awareness of the importance of affordable housing.
The 2003 bushfires exacerbated the pressures on housing affordability. In our 2003-04 budget we announced a range of measure to relieve housing stress on low-income earners that covered the broad spectrum of issues including public and community housing, homelessness services, the private rental market and home ownership. These measures were aligned with the agreed recommendations of the task force and responded to the loss of housing in the bushfires. Members will recall that we appropriated $33.2 million to boost social housing capital. This was the largest single injection of funding into public and community housing since self-government, and it took the Stanhope government to do it. It enabled the purchase of more than 80 public housing properties, including stock to be leased to the community housing sector.
In the following budget, this was augmented by a further $20 million over four years to further increase the supply of social housing. This will assist in the acquisition of another 60 properties. At the same time, we have moved to improve access to public housing. We do not resile from our decision to restore security of tenure for public housing tenants. We will not tolerate a situation where tenants, who have a small and perhaps temporary change in their financial circumstances, live on a knife edge of eviction. This government will never, for example, countenance a situation where a longstanding elderly tenant in a modest bed-sitter is evicted merely because he or she is a market renter.
This government has also initiated a number of amendments to the public rental housing assistance program to assist those most in need to gain access to public housing, as well as sustain their tenancies. These changes were wide ranging and aimed predominantly at ensuring that people are not unnecessarily put at risk of homelessness. In both social and financial terms there is no mileage whatsoever in supporting a public housing system that promotes insecurity and evictions that may otherwise be preventable. This is why we are trialling a debt review committee where tenants, or prospective tenants, who are experiencing financial difficulties can receive help and support. Community housing is an important and growing source of affordable housing in the territory. Provided by not-for-profit community organisations, with the support of government, community housing very much complements public housing. It offers a high degree of tenant participation in tenancy management and seeks to accommodate people with diverse and complex needs in an extremely affordable context.
Since the task force tabled its report, the government has implemented a range of substantial measures to both ensure the viability of the community housing sector and support its expansion. In the 2003-04 budget, we provided $6 million over two years for
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