Page 1536 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 May 2017
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most vulnerable people in our society are looked after. Part of living in an egalitarian city means ensuring that our most vulnerable people are supported. It is the measure of our community and what makes Canberra such a great place to live.
As a Labor candidate last year, one of the reasons I stood for election was to ensure that our most vulnerable people get the support they need. That is why now, as a Labor member of this place, I also support the government’s public housing renewal plan and the proposed investment in developments in my electorate to build quality adaptive housing for existing public housing tenants on community facility zone land.
One of the ACT government’s most important roles is to provide people with a roof over their head when they and their children cannot afford the private market. It is the first step in tackling any further aspects of disadvantage. That is why public housing and affordable housing are so important.
The ACT has always had a significant level of public housing as part of our housing mix. We were a city built on the back of our public housing stock. The salt and pepper approach to public housing in the ACT has meant that there are small pockets of collocated housing in almost all suburbs, although Wright, up to now, has been an exception, but for one property.
The supportive housing proposed by the government’s Public Housing Renewal Taskforce will be built on parts of community facility zoned land, which is consistent with the permitted uses in the Territory Plan. The Public Housing Renewal Taskforce plans to subdivide some sites to ensure the remnant portion is of a useful size and shape for future use. The remaining portion of those sites will be retained for other community facility use in the future.
The community facility zoning covers a broad range of uses, including supportive housing. I note that other zones in the Territory Plan also cover a broad range of uses to make sure that our planning policies are flexible. The use of undeveloped sites in established areas provides an opportunity to further integrate public housing into established communities.
Supportive housing is residential accommodation for those in need of support, where the support is managed by a territory-approved organisation. The tenants will be carefully selected by Housing ACT, with assistance from community service organisations, on the basis of their suitability for this type of development in these areas and they will have ongoing support.
The small medium density developments proposed by the government are a world away from the unsustainable, high density concentrations of disadvantage along Northbourne Avenue. The Northbourne flats, in particular, have been hard to let to Housing ACT tenants for years, with many remaining empty because they are inappropriate, particularly for families, with many of them one-bedroom apartments. The public housing on Northbourne has reached the end of its useful life. The flats are simply unsuitable for residents. That is why I am very supportive of the redevelopment of these flats with residents moving to new, better quality homes throughout our city.
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