Page 4843 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 November 2017
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and Torres Strait Islander community; and members of the community representing those experiencing homelessness, people with a disability and renters.
This comprehensive consultation was assisted by the affordable housing advisory group. A group set up in early 2017, the advisory group includes representatives involved in organisations such as ACT Shelter, the ACT property council, Luton Properties, Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services, Woden Community Services, the University of Canberra, Havelock Housing Association and the ACT chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects. Each of these representatives played an active role in the community engagement leading up to the summit.
At the summit, the minister announced new initiatives we are already taking as a result of community consultation. The ACT government is establishing a housing innovation fund of $1 million. This will provide seed funding to facilitate new affordable housing projects around Canberra. Initially three projects—HomeGround affordable rental, Homeshare and the Nightingale Housing model—will be piloted. These projects were commitments made in the parliamentary agreement. Expressions of interest are being sought from organisations to lead these pilots. However, the ideas taken away from the summit will also assist in identifying future initiatives that the fund can assist.
The government has also taken the step of announcing its first annual target on affordable, public and community housing supply. This target was set under the recently passed land development and city renewal legislation. Before the end of the financial year, 530 sites will be released for affordable home purchase and public and community housing. This marks an increase of 240 sites on what would have otherwise been delivered this year. The new annual target underpins a broader approach to affordable housing options across all sectors and cements our commitment to working with community housing providers, builders, estate planners and our own public housing authority in growing these targets in the future.
We also announced a new affordable housing purchase database. The Canberra community provides a large subsidy for each discounted block, so it is vital that we ensure that these blocks are available to those who need them most by ensuring that the release of affordable land is fair and equitable. The affordable home purchase database will be used to ensure these blocks are made available only to households who have pre-registered.
The key takeaways from the community engagement and summit will be summarised in a document to be made available shortly. These will then be used to design the strategy that will underpin the ACT government’s approach to housing and homelessness into the foreseeable future. I very much look forward to the results from this process, as I am certain it will lead to significant improvements in the services we provide to the people of Canberra. I applaud the minister for once again showing the way forward on policy and community engagement. I commend this motion to the Assembly.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (4.31): Government members are displaying their narcissistic intent to give each other a pat on the back for carrying out the most basic
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