AUSTRALIA’S peak community housing provider (CHP) organisation has unveiled the ambitious target of making one in every 10 homes social or affordable within 20 years, and believes the sector is up for the fight.
PowerHousing Australia – a national network of 38 CHPs who own and manage more than 80% of the country’s community housing stock – is calling for a federal government policies that will “fully harness the ability of CHPs to build social and affordable housing at the scale Australia needs”.
“We know it’s a bold ask,” PowerHousing Australia CEO Michelle Gegenhuber told Australian Property Journal.
“We know it will take time to get there. What we’re really looking for is bipartisan support to an end point where Australia has affordable housing for everybody.
“Community Housing Providers are ready to build homes to address Australia’s housing crisis. With the right policy settings and support, our members can deliver large-scale housing solutions that not only provide stability for vulnerable Australians but also bolster economic productivity, employment and community cohesion.”
In its new report, Housing for All: Leveraging Community Housing to Address Australia’s Crisis, PowerHousing Australia calls for a federal government commitment to a target of one in 10 homes designated as social and affordable housing, with an annual delivery minimum of 20,000 homes until 10% of the housing market is reached – targeted for 2045.
The would require dedicated funding from federal and state budgets specifically for the expansion of social and affordable housing, with innovative financing options such as sub- debt to be explored to leverage additional capital. A National Regulatory System for Community Housing adapted to reflect contemporary practices in line with accessing institutional capital would also be established and enable the use of sub-debt financing to reduce public sector debt exposure.
It calls for making national cabinet’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) – which launched this year with the aim of delivering 20,000 social and 20,000 new affordable homes over five years – a permanent fixture of the federal government’s housing policy, or an alternative that delivers the 10% threshold.
The report said the HAFF’s initial goal “falls short when measured against the staggering unmet needs of over 500,000 Australian households”.
“Our expectation is that the size of the investment really needs to match at the same scale as the size of the issue that we’re facing,” Gegenhuber told Australian Property Journal.
“My hope would be that we have bipartisan support for the HAFF or a very similar funding mechanism that provides structural change to the investment in social and affordable housing in the long-term,” she said.
“That it is embedded as a long-term change which will enable our community housing providers to be able to scale up their developments, scale up their development pipelines and unlock some barriers to institutional investment and create some real efficiencies and some very significant economic benefits for the broader Australian economy with significant construction pipelines – which flows on to providing homes at all points along the housing continuum and making sure that we’re looking at housing as a whole system, and how we adjust and correct that system, so we get to a point in 10 and 20 years where housing is affordable for those that need it,” she said.
The report called for the establishment of a 20-year Housing All Australians plan that includes the development of consistent, state-level fast-tracked planning processes for social and affordable housing projects, define clear incentivised roles and responsibilities for federal, state and territory, and local governments including agreements on debt and shared risk appropriation with state and federal governments, and setting specific targets for various housing types, including social and affordable housing.
“It’s around creating and forging a path forward. It doesn’t just end the housing crisis, but provides a housing market where every person who needs a home can find a safe, affordable and suitable home in an area where they need to be, whether it be close to their work, close to their family or elsewhere,” Gegenhuber said.
PowerHousing Australia also called for recognition of social and affordable housing as essential social infrastructure, unlocking private sector investment and accelerating project delivery.
Gegenhuber said she is “really optimistic” about the plans becoming a reality.
“The Australian community is looking for answers on how do we make Australia’s housing affordable and I believe our politicians will listen to that and there really is some current momentum.
“We would love to see that continue and focus on how do we actually address and not just provide a small amount of funding for one cohort here, or one idea here, but how do we provide a whole series of solutions that fit together a bit like a jigsaw puzzle to actually change the landscape and the trajectory of housing in Australia.”
