‘Yes in God’s backyard’: Labor offers cash for church housing

Church groups are signing up for federal funds to build homes for people in need and fill a gap in the broader housing market, prompting the government to offer them more cash if they are willing to release land that has been unused for decades.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told faith leaders on Tuesday that they stood to gain a bigger share of a $10 billion federal housing fund if they followed the example of Baptists and other churches by using their land for emergency accommodation.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says faith groups provided 10 per cent of the successful projects in the first round of funding from the Housing Australia Future Fund.

The proposal is being backed by Faith Housing Australia, chaired by former NSW Liberal cabinet minister Rob Stokes, as a way to build homes on some of the best-located land in major cities and regional centres.

O’Neil set out the offer with a call to replace the common objection to new developments – known as NIMBY for “not in my backyard” – with an approach she called “yes in God’s backyard”, or YIGBY.

The government set up the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) after months of objections from the Coalition and the Greens, although it was eventually passed with the Greens’ backing in September last year. The government has said at least $500 million a year in interest earned on the fund would be used to help build 30,000 social and affordable homes in the first five years.

Housing Australia chose the first 185 projects to receive funding in September and estimated they would deliver about 13,700 social and affordable homes.

O’Neil said a check of the successful projects in the first round of funding showed 10 per cent came from faith-based groups, with plans to build 1000 homes.

“Your bids in the first round of the HAFF were supported by local parishes who gifted land, like their church’s old car park, because the parishioners believed housing people in need was more important,” she said in a speech to Faith Housing Australia in Sydney.

“Being religious organisations, you were able to crowd in [crowdfund] charitable donations and philanthropy to add to the capital stack – something governments either couldn’t or didn’t match.”

Faith Housing Australia, which includes Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and other faiths, wants its members to double their projects to 20 per cent of the next round of the federal housing fund.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil called on faith leaders to invest more in affordable housing stock.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Stokes said: “The churches have built up a really enviable portfolio of property in well-located areas, and often congregations have moved away from these spots and the land is left sitting there.

“I think we’re morally obliged to see what we can do with this land – to relieve housing injustice.

“We’re not acting as Muslims or Catholics or Protestants, but recognising that the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts, and so advocating collectively is a great way to do it.”

Stokes said the churches preferred to retain the ownership of their land and use it for affordable housing with a social purpose, rather than selling to developers. Because they owned the land, he said, their projects were more feasible under the federal scheme.

In a separate program, the government provided $70 million from the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation to BaptistCare, a community housing provider, to build 162 social and affordable homes in NSW.

“We don’t need divine help to get this done, but we do need the support and involvement of all organisations whose congregations have the faith and goodwill to make a real difference to our country,” O’Neil said.

“So for those organisations looking on – it’s time to jump in. The opportunity to change lives here is immense.”

The government wants to commit money to a second round of funding from the Housing Australia Future Fund before the next election, and has said it would have finished a second round already if the Greens had supported the fund sooner.

The Greens argue they were right to delay the fund because the party’s pressure forced the government to spend more on other programs, such as a separate $1 billion on public and community housing.

Another phase in government housing policy starts early next year when applications open for $1 billion from the National Housing Infrastructure Facility under a deal between Canberra and the states to build crisis accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence.

On Tuesday, O’Neil said that all of this additional funding would go to community housing providers – including faith-based groups – as well as the states and territories.

“Given the scourge of domestic violence and unacceptable levels of youth homelessness, I have also asked that the entire $1 billion be committed to new projects by the end of 2025,” she said.

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