Social housing Victoria: Federal government urged to step up after state funding announcement
Australia’s peak homelessness body has called on the federal government to step up and “turbocharge” Victoria’s record $5.3bn investment in social housing that will build homes and boost jobs.
Australia’s peak homelessness body has called on the federal government to step up and “turbocharge” Victoria’s record $5.3bn investment in social housing.
Homelessness Australia chief executive Jenny Smith said the Andrews Government had “taken the lead” by committing to creating 12,000 social and affordable homes over four years — and with them, an estimated 43,000 jobs.
“But co-investment by the federal government is needed to deepen the impact, provide more jobs, and make further inroads to Victoria’s shortfall of 102,800 social housing dwellings” she said.
“The federal government (should) use Victoria’s historic investment to start a nationwide mega housing build … to support the nation’s recovery.”
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October’s federal budget failed to directly invest in social housing — a move housing bodies feared would particularly hurt COVID-hit Victoria, which has the nation’s lowest proportion of stock.
Meanwhile, the Victorian Government isn’t wasting time getting the social housing building blitz underway, calling on bids for “in-progress or ready-to-build” projects that could be swiftly repurposed under the Big Housing Build scheme.
Newly formed government agency Homes Victoria is seeking nominations for potential “fast-start projects” across 21 “priority local government areas”, according to its website.
These include Melbourne regions Port Phillip, Maribyrnong, Brimbank, Hume, Moreland, Darebin, Whitehorse and Boroondara, as well as regional cities like Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.
They would be in addition to the six sites already earmarked for development in Heidelberg West, Ascot Vale, Flemington, Hawthorn, Richmond and Ashburton.
The Urban Development Institute of Australia’s Victorian chief executive Danni Hunter said the call out for pre-existing projects offered private residential developers “a real opportunity” to repurpose housing stock they hadn’t been able to sell or settle due to COVID-19 into much-needed affordable housing.
This would help keep the pandemic-hit industry afloat for the next four years, and pick itself back up again afterwards.
“New projects will be able to commenced without fear of any oversupply issues,” she said.
Ms Hunter said she attended a meeting on Monday with Housing Minister Richard Wynne and new Homes Victoria chief executive Ben Rimmer, in which they stated they wanted to “hear from people with projects that could be commenced before the end of next year”.
The scheme also had clear social and economic benefits, she said, referring to City of Melbourne estimates that every $1 invested in affordable housing created more than $3 of value for the community in the form of “reduced crime costs, reduced domestic violence, health cost savings, educational benefits and economic value”.
Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA) chief executive Wendy Hayhurst praised the fact 8200 of the units would be managed by community housing organisations.
Social housing encompasses both community housing, which is built by government and transferred to community organisations to run, and public housing, which is government built and run.
“(Community housing) has got higher tenant satisfaction ratings,” she said.
“We prioritise energy efficiency (and) you wouldn’t know (our builds) are affordable housing as they look like everything else.”
The government has pledged the new homes will meet 7-star efficiency standards.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the investment would “change lives (by) giving thousands of Victorians the security and stability of a home, and tens of thousands of Victorians a job”.
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Originally published as Social housing Victoria: Federal government urged to step up after state funding announcement