Page 3501 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 15 November 2006
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(b) that the ACT Government has provided substantial support to the community housing sector.”.
The amendments are designed to show that we accept the importance of the community housing sector and that we are well advanced in developing policies for both affordable housing and the community sector.
The affordable housing task force are well advanced in this work. We are not going to ask them to start again to incorporate a sector that is undergoing its own change program. Note that, Dr Foskey: it is undergoing its own change management program; it is not being run by the government. We have no right to do that. We have a right to expect an excellent system. We do not have the right to march up to people and say, “You will.” We have not done that.
In 2004-05 the ACT Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services engaged SGS Economics and Planning to undertake a funding review of the community housing sector in the ACT. As part of this consultancy, SGS completed consultations with community housing organisations and produced an interim report as the basis of normal feedback from the sector. The final report was provided to the department in October 2005 and is available on the DHCS website www.dhcs.act.gov.au.
The department responded to this report in June 2006 and provided it to the community sector as a basis for a new three-year funding program. That response clearly articulated a commitment to maintain a strong community housing sector. The commitment is also clearly demonstrated by the funding provided for its expansion during the past few years. At its base, community housing receives $1.06 million recurrent funding annually from the commonwealth-state housing agreement. In addition, it receives recurrent funding for a range of services such as Ainslie Village and retains rental revenue of over $1½ million per annum.
In the 2002-03 budget the government announced that it would expand the supply of community housing through initiatives that included the provision of $1.2 million over the following four years. At the same time, a further $1.4 million was provided by the government to facilitate the transition of Ainslie Village from a supported housing model to mixed community supported housing. The first year of this transition process has almost been completed, with Havelock Housing Association winning an open tender process to provide tenancy and site management services for Ainslie Village in November 2005.
The government committed an additional $1.4 million in 2002-03 to increase the access and choice for the ACT’s indigenous population. This funding was used to enhance indigenous community housing organisations like Billabong Aboriginal Corporation and Winnunga Nimmityjah’s housing liaison service which support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to access and sustain appropriate housing.
The 2002-03 budget provided for a transfer of $3 million of capital funding from public housing to expand community housing by funding innovative housing projects. In 2003-04 the government provided an additional $3 million of capital funding to
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