Page 2801 - Week 09 - Thursday, 27 September 2007
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were acquired for families on the list. From these funds Housing ACT will also purchase up to 20 new affordable house and land packages developed under the affordable housing action plan. A further $4.3 million capital injection in 2007-08 will allow Housing ACT to purchase 17 two-bedroom dwellings. This brings the government’s total additional commitment to public housing stock to more than $34 million over three years.
Through the action plan and the broader public housing reform initiatives, the government is making more effective use of public housing assets and resources and strengthening Housing ACT’s role as the principal social housing provider in the territory. Housing ACT has reviewed its procedures to ensure that the top priority applicants are housed within three months; continued to restructure housing stock to better meet the needs of Housing ACT clients; announced the introduction of eligibility reviews to encourage tenants with sustained incomes over $80,000 to purchase their home; commenced development of a shared equity product for eligible tenants that will allow tenants to purchase a majority share of their home; and commenced a pilot for a youth stairwell model whereby tenants with similar backgrounds in multi-unit complexes receive appropriate levels of support. These initiatives highlight the government’s ongoing commitment to house the less well off in our community.
Many households in the private rental market also suffer high levels of housing stress. While the commonwealth government continues to exert primary influence over the private rental market through its economic and taxation policies and programs, such as the commonwealth rent assistance program, the government is pursuing initiatives to improve affordability for private renters.
To maximise the impact of the new land release policies on the availability of rental properties, the ACT government will embark on what I believe is an Australian first. We will boost the supply of rental accommodation by encouraging institutional investment in private rental accommodation. We will seek expressions of interest from the private sector to develop and rent between 200 and 400 dedicated private dwellings as part of a development or developments of up to 1,000 dwellings. Discussions have commenced with private institutions and are encouraging.
The government is also leading the charge in providing affordable aged persons accommodation. The government recently agreed to direct sell the former O’Connell Education Centre site in Griffith to Baptist Community Services for the purpose of a 160-bed aged care facility. BCS was granted a 100 per cent concession and thus are paying nothing for a site worth almost $2 million. There will be 57 new beds and 103 residents will be relocated from Morling Lodge. Of these 160 beds, at least 32 and perhaps up to half will be concessional. In a first for the territory, in exchange for the concession on the purchase price of the Griffith block, Baptist Community Services has agreed to redevelop the Morling Lodge site for aged persons supported accommodation and provide $1.8 million worth of affordable supported accommodation units over 15 years.
The affordable housing action plan will also result in a lot more construction activity over the next few years. For this to take place we will need to attract and retain skilled
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