Page 3592 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 18 September 2019
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outcomes that strengthen housing assistance and increase affordability across Canberra.
Around seven per cent of ACT households are in some form of social housing. The ACT has the highest ratio of public housing in the country, and each year the ACT government provides around $144 million in rental subsidies to tenants in public housing, which provides a long-term affordable home for many families.
To provide more people with the opportunity of an affordable home, the government announced a commitment to grow and renew public housing by investing an additional $100 million into the public housing portfolio over five years. This program will grow the public housing portfolio by at least 200 additional homes and provide homes for more people who need it. It will rebuild or replace more than 1,000 existing older properties to help improve quality of life for our tenants and ensure that the houses are more sustainable and affordable to live in. This is the biggest per capita investment in public housing in the country. If all states and territories made the same amount of investment, there would be an extra $6 billion put into public housing.
The government is also making more land available for social and affordable housing, with 15 per cent of all land releases, both infill and greenfield, being set aside for public, community and affordable home purchase. With over 15,600 new homes planned for release over the next four years, a significant amount is being set aside for affordable housing. Expressions of interest for new affordable and community housing blocks in Taylor are currently open for builders and community housing providers to bring their proposals to build this new affordable housing for Canberra.
Under the housing strategy, the affordable housing innovation fund is bringing new ideas and projects that have been successful in other parts of the country to Canberra. The ACT government provided funding to Community Housing Canberra to start HomeGround, a not-for-profit real estate agency that will manage homes on behalf of property investors providing affordable rentals for Canberrans who need it. A similar program run by the YWCA, called Rentwell, has also started, targeted towards older women, who are more likely to find themselves without a secure home, and with lower amounts of savings and superannuation. I ask anyone in this chamber or anyone they know to consider participating in this program to provide more affordable housing for people in our city. In recognition of this contribution, the ACT government will exempt properties who participate in programs like these from land tax, in line with the arrangements with other community housing properties.
In relation to community housing, the ACT government has committed to growing community housing in partnership, on projects that provide that social mix and better outcomes for tenants. One hundred and fifty-one more homes will be added to community housing and will provide more affordable rentals for eligible Canberrans. The first of these projects is for 33 units in Kaleen, which is to be part of a mixed public and community housing complex with 66 units overall.
Another project, in partnership with community housing, will be Common Ground Dickson. Last week, I joined with Minister Stephen-Smith and Diane Kargas Bray from the Common Ground board to launch the pre-DA consultation for the designs
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