Category Archives: News

Disappointed, but not surprised.

That was CHIA CEO Peta Winzar‘s response to advice that the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee had rejected a Bill to pilot a scheme to improve the energy security of low income renters.

‘The evidence put to the Committee about the poor thermal qualities of rental housing was compelling’ she said:

in the ACT 43 per cent of rental properties have a 0-star rating,
In South Australia, less than four per cent of renters live in homes with solar panels,
In Victoria, 58 per cent of private renters and 55 per cent of public renters live in a house with ceiling insulation, compared to 95 per cent of home owners/buyers, and
in Queensland, 40 per cent of renters live in properties with insulation compared to 80 per cent of owner occupiers.

The Bill proposed by Senator Storer envisaged a three-year pilot program offering up to $2,000 to landlords, including community housing landlords, to improve energy efficiency of buildings and appliances. The Committee acknowledged that many Australian households struggle with high energy bills and that improved energy efficiency will result in lower energy bills and improved health and wellbeing of tenants. However, it recommended that the Bill not be passed, suggesting that further consultation into this ‘complex policy area’ was needed.

While describing the energy efficiency of rental properties as seriously inadequate, the committee noted several concerns raised in Submissions: that better energy efficiency might lead to higher rents, that the $300 weekly rental threshold proposed would exclude many renters, and the maximum incentive of $2,000 per year may be too low to fund many improvements and would have a low take up by landlords.

‘CHIA will take this issue up with both the Government and the Opposition, she said, pointing out that channelling these funds through community housing operators would be an effective way to address each of these concerns.

‘Income-linked rents in community housing avoids the problem that energy efficiency investments could lead to rent increases. The $300 pw rent threshold is certainly low, but most community housing tenants fall under this threshold – and it is these lowest income households who have most difficulty with energy bills.

‘And I can guarantee that community housing providers would snap up the opportunity to improve energy security for their low income tenants, she said.

Find the committee’s report here.

and Senator Storer’s media release here.

Australia Day awards for people in housing

29/01/2019

The Australia Day awards list has showcased the enormous contribution of many individuals in the community housing sector. CHIA congratulates the eleven awardees for their valuable contributions to community housing and thanks them for their service.

Peter Allen from Balwyn, VIC is currently on the board of Servants Housing, and was awarded an Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to the community through a range of organisations.

Graeme Brady, was a board member of Rockhampton and Environs Affordable Community Housing Ltd from 2008 to 2016. From Frenchville, QLD, Mr Brady was awarded an OAM for his service to the community of Rockhampton.

Raymond Brown from Dalby, QLD was the inaugural chair of Western Downs Housing Trust in 2012. His OAM was awarded to him for his service to local government, and to the community.

Ross Cooke from Malvern East, VIC received an OAM for his contribution to community health. He was a board member for Wintringham (and Wintringham Housing) from 1998 to 2015, and was the president of Wintringham in 2006.

Jim Couper from Mt Rankin, NSW is one of Bathurst’s recipients of the OAM. Mr Couper served as the chair of Housing Plus Ltd from 2009 to 2018, and was previously the president and chair of the Central Tablelands Housing Association in Orange from 2009 to 2011. He says he is “thrilled and humbled to be receiving an OAM.”

Elizabeth Hopwood from Orange, NSW is a former board member for Housing Plus Ltd and is currently a chairperson and volunteer coordinator for Food Care Orange. She received an OAM for her service to the community through social welfare organisations.

John Kenny from Forestville, SA has served as the chairman of the Frederic Ozanam Housing Association since 2012. His OAM was awarded for his service to the community.

Diane Kerr from Moorabbin, VIC is the former director of the Narragol Housing Co-Operative. She received the award for her service to the Indigenous community of Victoria.

Terrence Luthy from Birkdale, QLD was a board member of Wynumm Manly Housing Co-Operative from 2005 to 2007. He was awarded an OAM for his service to the community.

William Risk from South Port, NT is the director of the Indigenous Housing Association. The OAM was awarded to him for his service to the Indigenous Community in the Northern Territory.

John Stone, the chair of North Coast Community Housing from 2005 to 2017, was awarded an OAM for his service to the community of Grafton, NSW.

We congratulate all the awardees for their tremendous service in helping the community. CHIA encourages people to think about who to nominate for their respective organisations. Nominations can be made here. A full honours list of awardees can be downloaded here.

Quick Guide to ROGS 2019 Report on Social Housing

24/01/2019

Total Commonwealth, state and territory outlays

Commonwealth expenditure on CRA ($4,438.8m) and NHHA (2003.8m) totalled $6,442.6m. Commonwealth expenditure under the NHHA in 2017-18 increased by $280.9 (16.3%) almost of all of which is explained by an additional $225.4m on Remote Indigenous housing.

State and territory outlays totalled $5,595.7m.[1] State expenditure on social housing per capita varied from $82.94 in Victoria to $638.97 in the NT. Victoria’s per capita spend is now less than half the national average of $166.93 per head of population.

State and territory governments reported transferring (management of) $1,375.4m of public housing stock to the community housing sector in 2017-18. Most of this was in SA where the transferred stock was valued at $1,079.1m.

All social housing

Over the past decade, the number of social housing dwellings has increased by 29,930 or 7.4% – well below population growth of 11% over the same period.

Public housing and state owned and managed Indigenous housing dwelling stock has fallen by 20,233 over the decade, to 330,917 in 2018. At the same time as public housing has retracted, the community housing portfolio, including Indigenous community housing, has expanded by 44,348 dwellings to 103,849. Community housing now represents 23.9% of all social housing dwellings nationally.

Community housing

The latest Report on Government Services 2019 confirms another year of steady growth for the community housing sector.

Mainstream community housing

At 30 June 2018, mainstream community housing organisations owned or managed 87,819 dwellings, up 4,917 (5.6%) on the previous year. Mainstream community housing dwelling portfolios rose in all jurisdictions except Queensland (down 396 dwellings, or -3.4%), Tasmania (down 135, or -2.2%) and NT (down 11 or 14.9%). Most of the increase was in SA (4,077) reflecting a substantial public housing stock transfer in that state, topped up by growth in NSW (up 947 dwellings, or 2.8%) and WA (215, or 2.7%). Growth in the Victorian community housing sector was disappointing, at just 125 dwellings (0.2%) over the previous year

Further sector consolidation saw the number of mainstream community housing providers fall by 66 (10.7%) from the previous year to 552. Provider numbers fell in all jurisdictions except WA, ACT and Tasmania. Most of the reduction occurred in Queensland (down 50 providers to 143) where a number of organisations were identified as no longer providing social housing, and several other (small) providers merged in 2017-18. [2]

Indigenous community housing

Dwellings held by Indigenous community housing organisations rose by 3.7% (569 dwellings) to 16,030 in June 2018. Increases in NSW (366), NT (322) Qld (78) and SA (43) were offset by loss of dwellings in Victoria (219) and WA (21).

Waiting list pressures

Waiting list pressure on community housing is growing, up from 38,776 on the waiting list in 2017 to 43,844 in June 2018. Even discounting the increase in the waiting list in SA following transfer of public housing stock, the national wait list for community housing grew by 7.8% (3,007 extra).

The number of new applicants on the wait list for community housing who were in greatest need sky-rocketed by 46% between 2017 (17,315) to 2018 (25,265).

The wait list for public housing fell from 142,490 in 2017 to 140, 578 in 2018. New applicants in greatest need on the public housing waitlist grew by 20% (up 7,798), driven mainly by a 6,933 (58%) increase in public housing applicants in greatest need in Victoria.

Rental stress among private renters

The number of CRA receipts fell by 32,245 between 2017 and 2018 to 1.311m people. Falls were reported in all jurisdictions except WA and SA (which had marginal increase of 0.2%).

CRA outlays fell by $100m to $4,438.8m. Even after CRA, 40.3% of recipients paid more than 30% of their income in rent and 12.5% paid more than half their income in rent in June 2018. Almost one in four CRA recipients under the age of 25 paid more than half their income in rent.

Comparative performance across sub-sectors

	Public housing	Mainstream CHO	Indigenous CHO*	State-owned & managed Indigenous housing
Occupancy rates [Table 18A. ]	97%	95.1%	93%	95.3%
Turnaraound times for vacant stock	25.2 – 88.2 days (varies across jurisdictions, NT highest)			27.9 – 38.1 days
Waiting lists [Tables 18A.5 to 7]	140,587	43,844		10,793
Greatest need as % of all new allocations	76.3%	81.8%		63.1%
New tenancies allocated to households with special needs	60.7%	55%		43.2%
Low income as a % of all households	98.5	94.2%		97.6%
% of households that are low income [Table 18A.21]	98.5%	94.2%		97.6%
% of low income households paying <20% of income in rent [Table 18A.22 to 24]	11.1% (57.4% in NT and 25.1% in ACT pay <20% of income in rent)	19.8% (34.2% in Tas and 31.9% in ACT pay less than 20% of income in rent)		30.4%
% of low income households paying >25% and <30% % of income on rent [Table 18A.22 to 24]	2.1%	13.9%		0.6%
% of low income households paying > 30% of income on rent [Table 18A.22 to 24]	0.5%	7.6%		0.2%
Overcrowded [Tables 18A.25 to 28]	3.8%	4.3%	3.5% – 32%*	24.2%
Under utilisation [Table 18A.32]	16.9%	10.3%		26.4%
Dwelling condition: 4 working facilities and not> 2 structural issues [Tables 18A.3 to-38]	80.3%	87%	71.4%**	73.2%
Customer satisfaction – satisfied or very satisfied [Tables 18A.40 to42]	74.1%	79.9%		66.2%
Cost per dwelling (excl capital) [Tables 18A.43 to 45]	$9,448 pa	$10,905 pa*	$10,373*	$13,055 pa
Cost per dwelling (inc capital) [Tables 18A.43 to 45]	$38,667 pa			$46,235 pa

*data is 2016-17 ** data is 2014-15 *** transfer of 4,000 properties to the CH sector in SA skews data

[1] Report on Government Services 2018, Table 18A.1

[2] Data on ICHO numbers is not included in the 2019 ROGS.

WENDY HAYHURST APPOINTED NEW CHIA CEO

08/01/2019

CHIA is pleased to announce that Wendy Hayhurst will take up the position of Chief Executive Officer of the community housing industry’s national peak body at the end of February 2019.

CHIA Chair Michael Lennon said CHIA is thrilled to have Wendy on board. “Wendy has a deep knowledge of community housing in Australia and overseas and will be a great asset to CHIA as we move into the next exciting phase of expansion of the industry.”

“We have been very impressed with the impact Wendy has had over the past three years in her role as CEO of CHIA NSW (formerly the New South Wales Federation of Housing Associations). We are looking forward to using her experience to expand our suite of member services and industry support for smaller and larger housing providers across the country. She is an excellent choice to take CHIA and the community housing industry forward on the next phase of our journey.”

John McKenna, Chair of CHIA NSW agreed with Lennon’s assessment, saying that he and the NSW Board are very sorry to lose Wendy, but recognise the impact she can make on the national stage.

“Wendy brought new skills and resources to our team at CHIA NSW,” McKenna said. “She has been very successful in raising the profile of community housing in this state and forged valuable links across government and industry. She will be hard to replace, but I know her future work with CHIA national will continue to benefit community housing providers in New South Wales.”

Immediately before taking up the role as the CEO of CHIA NSW, Ms Hayhurst was the Manager (Regulation) for the Registrar of Community Housing in NSW. Her extensive housing experience ranges from front-line housing management services, to Head of Housing at East Lothian Council in the UK and Regulation Manager at the Scottish Housing Regulator. She has also held senior roles in UK housing consultancy services working on policy and capacity building for a range of clients.

With Ms Hayhurst’s appointment, CHIA’s national office will relocate from Melbourne to Canberra.

Anglicare to develop Coca-Cola site into affordable housing

18/12/2018

Member news News No Comments

A section of the recently-closed Coca-Cola Amatil manufacturing site in Thebarton will be transformed into social and affordable housing for people on low-incomes, InDaily can reveal.

The ageing Thebarton line produced its final bottle of Coke last week, ending 66 years of local production.

The 2.5ha Port Road site had been valued at almost $17 million in February last year when it was rezoned to allow for residential development of up to eight stories.

Anglicare SA CEO Peter Sandeman told InDaily this morning that his organisation had this week purchased a 9,500m² portion of the site for an undisclosed sum to build its third housing and services hub in metropolitan Adelaide.

The purchased site, approximately two-blocks in size immediately south of the bottling plant, will be developed into multi-storey affordable and social housing, an Anglicare services centre and a space for “back-room administration”. It will complement Anglicare’s two existing services hubs, located in Elizabeth and Noarlunga.

Coca-Cola Amatil had formerly used the site as a storage space and car park.

Sandeman said it was “enormously rare” to secure a plot of land so close to the city and he was “quite confident” that construction would begin in six months, with the build expected to be completed by about 2020-21.

“I suspect Anglicare will be the first to develop on the site so we will have to use due-care in making sure the design is appropriate and sets, I hope, a high standard of what will be developed along that stretch of Port Road in the future,” he said.

Nathan Dal Bon new CEO for NHFIC

07/12/2018

CHIA chairman Michael Lennon congratulated Nathan Dal Bon on his official appointment as the new CEO for the National Housing Finance and Investment Cooperation (NHFIC).

Dal Bon has been the Principal Adviser for the Australian Treasury and Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. He has also worked as the Head of the Economic Advisory Group at the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

Lennon said that the community housing industry had been very impressed with the open and consultative approach Dal Bon had taken to the design and roll out of the NHFIC. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to continue working with Dal Bon and the NHFIC board over the coming years. This is a very exciting time for the community housing sector.

Federal News No Comments

In her introductory meeting with the new Federal Minister for Disability and Housing, Sarah Henderson MP, CHIA’s Executive Director outlined the sector’s ambition to become the housing provider of choice for renters on low and moderate incomes by the end of the next decade.

Community housing now represents 3.3 per cent of all rental housing, Peta Winzar explained. The sector aims to triple in size to around 300,000 social and affordable rentals by 2028. The primary objective is to offer more choice to tenants. And, at 10 per cent of the rental market, the community housing sector would also be well-positioned to drive improvements across the broader rental market.

Review of National Regulatory System well overdue

News Regulation No Comments

At last week’s forum of state-based registrars of community housing, state housing policy agencies and community housing peaks, CHIA Executive Director Peta Winzar pressed the point with housing policy agencies that the long delay in kicking off the review of the National Regulatory System for Community Housing was extremely frustrating for the sector.

We know that the registrars and housing policy agencies have been working on an evaluation of the NRSCH since at least April 2017. Yet, over 18 months later, we are still to see the final Terms of Reference for this review.

The review is important for several reasons. A central objective of the NRSCH is to support the growth and development of the community housing sector. It must be able to do this and effectively support the NHFIC and the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator to avoid creating any unnecessary additional regulatory burden on providers. (Reducing the regulatory burden on CHPs working across different states and territories is another core objective of the NRSCH.)

Community housing peaks have been providing feedback on the NRSCH through the Regulatory Advisory Group Forum over the past two years, but this NRSCH Review would give CHPs the opportunity to provide direct feedback on whether the NRSCH is meeting these objectives and make suggestions for improvement.

Both Western Australia and Victoria have flagged that they will consider joining the NRSCH once this review is complete, but that won’t happen until the end of 2019. So the earliest date from which we will have a national system of community housing regulation in Australia is 2010 – and more probably, not until 2021.

Other matters canvassed at the Regulatory Forum included the Evidence Guidelines for Tier 3 providers, the Community housing Standards and improving transparency and accountability of regulatory decisions. The NRSCH will also release a comprehensive annual report on regulatory activity and outcomes later this year.

Build to Rent Member news News Qld No Comments

A Queensland community housing provider is ‘over the moon’ after winning an UDIA’s Affordable Housing award for what it has dubbed Australia’s first truly affordable build to rent project.

Churches for Christ Housing Services took out the award for its 50-dwelling townhouse complex in Kallangur, in Brisbane’s northern suburbs. The development, which includes a community centre, was built on well-located land gifted to the organisation by local philanthropists Ian and Neva Handy.

CoC Housing Services General Manager Frances Paterson-Fleider says the successful partnership of local philanthropists, funding by their parent organisation Churches of Christ in Queensland, and a local builder National Construction Management (who they had used previously) who was willing to provide a fixed price for the project, all assisted to make it affordable.

Frances says her organisation was delighted at the win, particularly knowing it was competing against property heavy weights like Grocon.

The award ‘recognises outstanding product that’s pricing is aligned with the selected target market and has considered issues such as ongoing operating costs, sustainability, its integration with the local community, and quality finishes amongst other criteria.’

The UDIA noted that the townhouses, ‘deliver well considered design, construction quality, and diversity of product focussed around a community centre and adjacent open space. The development considered both lifecycle costs and practical sustainable initiatives within a tight budget. The project received strong market acceptance from individuals and families in need of safe and quality accommodation at an affordable price.’

‘This was an amazing outcome for Churches of Christ and our Housing team,’ Frances says. ‘I believe every staff member had a role to play in this achievement – whether direct or supporting processes or holding the fort while staff worked on this.

‘Thank you everyone – a remarkable achievement to be recognised by our peers and most importantly, transforming the lives of another 50 households.’

Member news News Northern Territory Regulation No Comments

The NT Government will be hosting free information sessions for housing providers interested in becoming registered Community Housing Providers under the National Regulatory System for Community Housing (NRSCH).

The NRSCH was developed to regulate providers of community housing, including social and affordable housing, indigenous community housing providers and other specialist community housing providers.

Obtaining registration may improve eligibility for future funding and investment opportunities in the community housing sector, however registration is voluntary.

The information session will cover:

Overview of the NRSCH
Benefits of registration
Capacity Building for Capability
Registration Process
Wind Up Clause – National Law
Examples of performance evidence requirements
Compliance assessment
NRSCH Resources and Questions

Sessions will be held as follows:

Darwin Thursday 22 November 2018

Alice Springs Friday 30 November 2018

Following the information sessions, interested providers will be able to register to meet with representatives to discuss registration of their organisation in further detail.

If you are a community housing provider and interested in attending one of these sessions, please email [email protected] by 16 November 2018.

For more information, please call the Community Housing team on 8999 8409.

NHFIC progress report for Queensland CHPs

News Qld No Comments

CHIA QLD, in partnership with Grant Thornton & the National Housing Finance Investment Corporation (NHFIC), is holding a pre-AGM event: ‘NHFIC – a progress report for Queensland CHPs’, with a presentation by the NHFIC Chief of Staff, David Crawford.

The event will be held on Thursday, November 22 from 9.30am to 11.30am, and will be followed by CHIA Qld’s AGM.

It will be held at Grant Thornton, Level 18/145 Ann Street, Brisbane. Registration is essential, please RSVP to Jo Ahern by email or call 0475 620 497 before noon on November 20.

NHFIC Chair, Brendan Crotty’s presentation to WA Community Housing Providers

24/10/2018

News Western Australia No Comments

27 August 2018
CHIA WA State Manager, Jennie Vartan’s, key take-outs from the presentation

The Vision
• That Community Housing Providers (CHPs), enabled by NHFIC finance, can generate growth in social/affordable housing supply

• Increasing co-operation between the private sector and CHPs – a catalyst for developers and CHPs to work together

The Intent

• To assist CHPs to expand their portfolios through loans with longer terms and lower interest rates

• To measurably increase social/affordable housing

• To improve the financial strength of the CHP sector

• The infrastructure funding will bring forward greenfield and brownfield residential land by addressing the issue that banks are not keen to lend on infrastructure

The Next Few Months’ Work

• Building relationships with CHPs
• Aim to lend $150-250m over 12 months
• Work with the States and service industries to lend $100-200m in infrastructure loans
• Developing good relationships with the property and banking sectors
• Nathan Del Bon appointed as interim CEO
• Well resourced, staff being appointed, starting to motor

Community Housing Provider Loans

• Initial focus expected to be refinancing existing debt
• All CHP debt considered for refinancing, it does not have to be debt arising from development
• Lowest loan size they will consider is $5m
• Straight forward loans, CHPs do not have to worry about the bond raising side of things, NHFIC will then repackage the loans for bond issues, in tranches of $100m
• Happy to fund multi-tenure development if it is part of a scheme generating significant affordable/social housing
• Thinks the demand will be for ten-year loans, but taking soundings on demand for 10 and 20-year loans
• Pricing will be 90 basis points above relevant Commonwealth bond yields, so a 10-year loan will be 3.5% as at the date of the presentation (27 August 2018)
• Credit assessment criteria will focus on interest rate cover, with loan to value less of an issue for loans secured by rental housing
• Interest rate cover could be as low as 1.25% but likely to be around 1.5% for the average CHP
• Tier 1s realistically have slight in built advantage but NHFIC will lend to Tier 2/Tier CHPs in principle
• Put in an expression of interest first to test whether you’d qualify and whether worth your time and effort to put in a full bloodied application
• NHFIC will also advise on receipt of Expressions of Interest, in terms of pointers as to what you need to do to qualify

Infrastructure loans

• Cost will be higher, probably just under bank loans but without the fees and charges
• No refinancing product
• Available when banks will not/cannot lend
• Deals done 3 months vs 6 months with banks
• With bank lending there is still refinance risk at the end of the construction phase, whereas NHFIC can refinance at that stage

JAV

Letter to Community Housing Registrar, WA, 17 September 2018

24/10/2018

News Western Australia No Comments

17 September 2018

Ms Lyn Anderson
Community Housing Registrar
Housing
Department of Communities
99 Plain Street
East Perth
WA 6004

Dear Lyn

Over the past few weeks, a number of Community Housing Providers (CHPs) have contacted CHIA WA and Shelter WA regarding the current re-registration process.

In this context, and given that the 30th September deadline is fast approaching for Registered CHPs to transition to the national framework, CHIA WA and Shelter WA consulted with the sector, including contacting all those listed as still registered under the 2007 system, to obtain a sector-wide view of the process.

At the outset, we would like to stress that a number of respondents said that their overall experience of the Regulatory team was positive. They reported friendly, timely, and structured feedback and that the Regulatory team had been fair, with flexibility to extend deadlines. Several reported that the process improved considerably with the later addition of experienced staff to the team. For the significant number that continued to find the process difficult, we have set out below the main themes of the feedback received, along with recommendations to address their concerns.

1. Overall, smaller organisations and those organisations for whom housing is only a small part, or not the main focus, of their business (large and small) experienced the most difficulty with the process.

The framework is not well suited to complex organisations for which housing is only a small part of their business. In some cases, this has been a deterrent to such organisations registering under the new system. This is a loss to the sector as these are often larger, well financed organisations, with good governance, and it would benefit the whole sector if they became bigger players in housing or serviced a niche market.

Similarly, smaller organisations where management of housing, although important, is secondary to their role in support service delivery found that the focus of the assessment tools, particularly the financial ones, was not well suited to their business.

The feedback was that assessment of these types of organisations was overly comprehensive across the non-housing parts of the business, whilst not being tailored to reflect that these are non-housing areas.

When reviewing the regulatory framework, some thought needs to be given as to how to make the regulation appropriate and proportionate for such organisations.

2. Many found the process cumbersome and time consuming, particularly the financial template which takes a full-time, suitably qualified person, two to four weeks to fill out, depending on the closeness of the organisation’s accounts system to the template.

3. Several CHPs felt that the initial briefings and information did not adequately prepare them for the detail of what was to come. A lot of very specific information requirements only became evident after the process got underway. This created a lot of time pressure which could have been avoided if they had realised the time they would need to allocate to prepare in advance of their allocated timeslot.

4. Many of those going through the process at the end of the financial year reported that the timing was not good. They felt the window allocated to them meant they were being required to stick to a timetable whilst managing their year-end, audit, and AGM processes. Smaller organisations in particular find this very difficult to juggle.

5. Many CHPs are still undecided as to whether it is worth the effort. In this regard, some providers requested a debrief from the Housing Authority regarding the consequences of losing registration and/or the advantages of being registered; and a wider conversation about the intended benefits and outcomes from going through the process.

6. We note that the Contracts side of the HA has given a number of CHPs written assurance that they will take no action regarding temporary loss of registration, provided the CHP is actively going through the process and is registered within 6 months. We appreciate this and trust that this approach will be taken for all CHPs in this situation.

7. There is confusion on the part of some CHPs as to whether this is the national scheme.

8. Two providers felt that the distinction between the three tiers was not nuanced enough and that what was required of a Tier 3 provider was not very different from that required of Tier 1 and 2 providers.

9. There is an appreciation of the need for good governance, but some felt the governance requirements did not reflect the small size and/or regional nature of their organisation and the limitations this places on them.

10. There was some concern that regulation duplicates information required to be provided under the current contract/lease agreements.

Whilst we support nationally consistent regulation, which is important to the overall growth of the sector, we remind the Housing Authority of its stated intention, when the NRSCH was first mooted for WA, that there would be less red tape: for example, the Regulator and Contracts would not be asking for similar data in different forms; nor that a financial template would be mandatory but that the same audited accounts provided to ASIC/ACNC would be acceptable.

Based on this feedback we respectfully recommend that:

1. All CHPS who are required to be registered under the terms of their contract(s) with the Housing Authority, are given assurance in writing that the Housing Authority will take no action regarding temporary loss of registration provided they are going through the process and are registered within 6 months.

2. The Housing Authority provides a debrief to the sector re the consequences of losing registration and/or the advantages of being registered.

3. That the pending national review of the financial template reflects the feedback that one size does not fit all and aims to make this requirement less onerous in terms of the format of its delivery.

4. That the timetable provided to individual CHPs for future registration/re-registration, takes into account other statutory reporting obligations CHPs must comply with at certain times of the year.

5. That CHIA WA and Shelter WA are actively included in any forthcoming review of the Regulatory System.

Kind regards

Yours sincerely

Jennie Vartan, State Manager, CHIA WA

Michelle Mackenzie, CEO, Shelter WA

23/10/2018

Innovation News No Comments

New approaches are needed to improve access social and affordable housing, according to new research from the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc).

The SBEnrc’s Procuring Social and Affordable Housing project found Australia needs new housing and community typologies; a greater understanding of the changing demographics of those needing better access to social and affordable housing; and more diverse housing with more innovative and responsive approaches.

The research highlighted the need for mix of procurement approaches to address the needs of a diverse cohort that includes remote Indigenous communities, those with a disability, key-workers, the aging, Millennials and GenY.

These approaches could include evolving Community Housing Provider models, shared equity models, cooperatives, social benefit bonds, build to rent, maximising vacant infrastructure for short-term pop-up shelters, and the Common Ground model.

‘With varied levels of experience across the states and territories, it is important to understand the pre-conditions for success and apply learnings to build nation-wide uptake and understanding,’ says Project Leader Judy Kraatz.

The Social Procurement project has developed guidelines for organisations that deliver social and affordable rental housing to follow when they choose to purchase a social outcome when buying goods or services.

It was informed by a 360 degree survey undertaken in mid-2018. Representatives from community housing organisations, state and local government, peak bodies, government and private developers, financiers, architects, and builders from across Australia took part in the survey.

Innovative funding schemes, planning mechanisms (including value capture and inclusionary zoning), partnerships, CHP models and estate renewal were considered as the top five approaches to be considered in improving access to social housing, Ms Kraatz says.

Joint venture to boost social housing in Hepburn

22/10/2018