Page 1981 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 June 2015
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The public housing renewal task force and Housing ACT have employed a range of professional specialist staff who will be working with each individual tenant to relocate them successfully. These staff will be making individual appointments with each tenant and undertaking an individual, holistic assessment to identify their housing and social needs. This assessment includes their property needs, the location of choice request, medical and support needs of the individual, family, religious and other needs of the tenant.
Staff have commenced visiting individual tenants and discussing their needs with them. A number of tenants who were on the transfer list have already been helped with appropriate moves that have met their needs. Housing ACT is working closely with tenants and community organisations to ensure that every tenant who requires additional assistance is supported to move into their new home. Financial and other support will be provided to each individual tenant who relocates as part of the housing renewal program.
Where tenants are transferred as part of the housing renewal program, Housing ACT will pay all costs associated with the tenant relocation, including removalist, utility connection fees and postal redirection. The linking into new communities task force, LINCT, will oversee the relocation of tenants. LINCT comprises executives from the ACT government and community partners which include Northside Community Service, the YWCA, ACT Shelter, ACT Council of Social Service, Oasis youth service, Canberra Men’s Centre, Barnados, Catholic Care, Inanna, and the Tenants Union ACT.
This collaborative group has jointly developed communication strategies and engagement plans to support the renewal program and the smooth relocation of affected tenants. It meets every six weeks and oversees the effective implementation of these strategies, working closely with the transforming communities partnership. LINCT has tasked the transforming communities partnership with responsibility for the continuous engagement of tenants to be relocated before, during and after the relocation process. The TCP includes operational staff from various LINCT organisations and these staff work on the ground with public housing tenants to identify their preferences and needs. The TCP members meet on a fortnightly basis to review progress and ensure the needs of tenants remain at the core of their engagement activities.
Tenants will continue to be supported after they move. Tenants who move to new parts of Canberra as part of the renewal program and who are receiving support through location-specific community support agencies will have that support transition with them while a new service is engaged to assist them in their new suburb. Where support agencies operate Canberra wide, that case support will continue unchanged—for example, the Canberra Men’s Centre.
I am pleased to report that yesterday’s budget included an investment of $159 million for the first round of replacement homes. This funding will deliver new homes for tenants of 352 public housing properties along the Northbourne Avenue corridor. This is the first stage of the government’s four-year program, with the next stages of the replacement to be detailed in future budgets.
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