Page 1777 - Week 05 - Thursday, 2 April 2009
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$6.5 million being used for the maintenance of around 243 properties. This significant influx of additional properties and maintenance expenditure will provide flexibility in the management of the public housing property portfolio and ensure that we enhance our housing response to people in need.
The government has a long commitment to enhancing and improving housing outcomes for the territory, marked by significant investment in public and community housing, as well as specialist homelessness service provision. The government has not rested on its achievements but continues to work to identify and respond to emerging need.
As the Assembly will be aware, I have reconvened the affordable housing task force to look at initiatives to address homelessness and the housing options of older Canberrans. I have also asked that options to increase the supply of affordable housing for older Canberrans be explored. One way this can be achieved is to strengthen and support the community housing sector. We have already identified a growth provider of affordable housing in the ACT—CHC Affordable Housing—and are supporting its financial growth through the direct transfer of 132 units valued at $40 million for ongoing provision of new housing units; one-off payments and transitional funding of $250,000 per year for three years, as well as access to the $50 million revolving line of credit that I mentioned earlier.
ACT Treasury has worked closely on CHC’s financial modelling and business plan and they are contracted to achieve significant growth in affordable rental and affordable home ownership. In return for this support CHC is committed to more than doubling its size in four years and increasing its property portfolio to 1,000 properties in 10 years. Mr Speaker, I think you will agree that this is an ambitious growth target. The work will ensure that there are a range of housing options and choices for Canberrans, supplemented by the additional growth in social housing which will be delivered through the stimulus package.
The commonwealth has established very tight time frames for delivering the housing outcomes required under the nation building and jobs plan. That is important because of the need to act now to encourage the construction industry to retain and create jobs. These time frames are also necessary because of the need to act now to stimulate the economy to alleviate the impact of the global financial crisis.
The ACT is well placed to meet these time frames. Housing ACT has worked to identify projects that have development applications approved and land purchases for which development can be expedited, for example, Housing ACT’s recently received development approval to construct 10 aged person units near the Canberra Hospital. Design has commenced on two further sites to construct over 50 older persons accommodation. This is just one example of how the stimulus package will be used to deliver key housing responses to the people within the community and within the time frames required by the commonwealth. There will be many others as we successfully roll out the program.
What this example also illustrates is the need for a joint approach between key stakeholders in both government and industry, informed by other partners, such as the
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