Page 4482 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 14 October 2009
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be provided to tenants. It will also help to integrate the broader housing continuum and enhance choice for people seeking housing.
The ACT government released its affordable housing action plan in April 2007, which acknowledges the crucial role that non-government housing providers play in the provision and management of affordable and supported housing. The initiatives in the strategy which focus on the community and the not-for-profit housing sector have been designed specifically to support growth in the community housing sector so that it can meet the needs of Canberrans that do not meet the income criteria for public housing. Specifically, the recommendations include initiatives to expand the capacity of CHC Affordable Housing, with the transfer of 135 properties from Housing ACT, exemption from duty and land tax and a $50 million revolving finance facility. In return, CHC has agreed to offer 1,000 new affordable dwellings for sale and rent over the next 10 years.
This government recognises the importance and potential of the not-for-profit sector in the housing continuum, but acknowledges that the size and capacity of the sector require additional work for them to become large-scale providers. The funding arrangements in the ACT for the community housing providers are structured to recognise the dual role of these providers in relation to tenancy management and the provision of more supportive tenancy management to clients with complex needs. Providers receive a benchmark payment for tenancy management of $677 per property and an additional $112 per property for tenancy support. This equates to a total of $789 per property per year.
The tenancy management payment supports the provision of services associated with the management of a person’s tenancy, including the collection of rent, management of arrears, maintenance of the waiting list and the allocation of properties to eligible tenants. The tenancy support payment is provided to small housing providers, such as TAS Housing, the Tamil Senior Citizens and Billabong Aboriginal Corporation, who target specific segments of the community and who receive this benchmark for the provision of supportive tenancy management for complex clients. In addition, some community housing providers, such as Havelock Housing Association and Billabong, receive operational subsidies from the ACT government equating to a payment of $50,000 per annum to Havelock and a payment of $81,000 to Billabong in the last financial year.
In addition, the majority of properties in the community housing sector are head leased from Housing ACT and in most cases the property ownership costs are borne by Housing ACT. This includes rates, insurance, repairs and maintenance and the debt servicing costs for commonwealth loans which were used to purchase these properties. The cost of repaying the principal and interest on the commonwealth loans by Housing ACT amounts to a subsidy of $817 per dwelling.
All of this assistance increases the viability of these organisations. It is a direct funding supplement by the ACT government for the provision of support to complex housing tenants in community housing. It is direct evidence against the Greens’ implication that community housing providers are not funded to provide quality services and outcomes for their tenants. What nonsense!
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