Page 3740 - Week 10 - Thursday, 14 September 2017
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force and with the linked in communities, to ensure that public housing tenants are properly supported during this renewal program. The Auditor-General in her assessment of the program also acknowledged that the support for tenants had been a great success through this program and that tenants were being well supported during the move.
There are 169 public housing properties that still exist on the Northbourne Avenue corridor. There are 177 replacement properties that have been purchased or built as part of the public housing renewal program, which is not many fewer than the numbers that were renewed to support tenants now and into the future and to ensure that they have sustainable housing that best suits their needs.
There is nothing at all stopping developers from building social or community housing along Northbourne Avenue. There is nothing stopping any developer from taking up that initiative themselves. But there are still a considerable number of public housing properties on the Northbourne Avenue corridor and within that region.
MR PARTON: Minister, what sorts of impacts were considered and, more specifically—a free kick question, really, for you—what strategies were adopted to resolve or manage those impacts? What strategies did you put in place to resolve the impacts on those who moved?
MS BERRY: I have had a number of questions on notice from Mr Parton on the public housing renewal program, I think; and I think my office has provided significant advice particularly about how tenants are being supported. One of the things that is happening with tenants who are supported during this program is ensuring that they have some choice about where they want to live in Canberra, which is not always the city. It is not always the city. Just like everybody else, public housing tenants want to live all over the city, in homes that best suit their or their families’ needs.
The other part of it is that during the renewal program, when tenants move, they are supported before they move, they are supported during their move and they are supported after their move. They are connected up with the local community, with community service organisations and with other support services, to make sure that they are being supported through this whole process. As far as I am advised, and from the tenants whom I have spoken to who have already moved through this, they have been well supported and are happily getting on with their lives in their new homes.
MR HANSON: Minister, as distinct from social housing, how much public housing will remain on Northbourne Avenue?
MS BERRY: I am not sure what you are talking about.
Mr Hanson: From community housing.
MS BERRY: There are 177 dwellings that have been purchased or built through the public housing renewal program within the Northbourne Avenue corridor, and there are 169 public housing dwellings.
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