Advocates call for 15,000 new homes for children and young people in response to
new analysis showing social housing system failing 15-24 year-olds.

Homelessness and housing groups have launched a national plan to fix housing for young people, featuring commissioned analysis by Nous that reveals 39,745 young people are alone, homeless and locked out of Australia’s social and affordable housing system.

This includes 11,905 First Nations young people or around 30% of the total figure. It also includes 9,613 children aged 15-17 years old who had sought help from a homelessness service. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of the group were disconnected from all forms of education, training and employment.

A new National Youth Housing Framework was launched today at Parliament House by national peak bodies and frontline services. The launch was hosted by the bi-partisan Parliamentary Friends of Housing Group and attended by a range of Government, Opposition and crossbench MPs.

Full media release here

CHIA and its Board recently canvased member views to decide its position on The Voice and referendum.

CHIA recognises that while many members and staff personally support the Voice campaign, there are often challenges when adopting a position as an organisation, due to the many stakeholders its members work with and that it is an individual’s choice. CHIA has previously expressed support for the Uluru Statement From the Heart. 

There was a clear majority and strong support for CHIA to support the Voice publicly. Thank you to all members who responded to the survey.

CHIA would like to highlight Honorary Professor Dr Vivienne Milligan’s recent  article that provides a cogent example from the housing world (the NSW Aboriginal Housing Office) of the positive results from embedding Indigenous advice in housing policy making. She contrasts the state of Indigenous housing and the Indigenous housing sector in NSW with other jurisdictions. For example, ‘When most other jurisdictions went backwards, over the last 25 years NSW has retained a strong network of regulated Aboriginal housing organisations. This has averted the mainstreaming of all housing service delivery, providing more options for Aboriginal people. Today around 40% of all Aboriginal social housing tenant households in NSW live in Aboriginal-run housing’.

Rents in Perth are soaring faster than any Australian capital city, while parts of regional
WA are experiencing the largest rent rises in the country, alarming new analysis shows
ahead of a crucial meeting to help fix the crisis.

Shelter WA has analysed the latest SQM Research Weekly Rents Index and found
advertised rents in Perth have risen 19% in the past year and 4% in the past three
months – the highest of the capital cities.

Perth also has the tightest vacancy rate of the capitals at 0.4%.

Meanwhile, two WA regions are among the country’s top ten areas for rent rises in the
past year.

The Goldfields region takes second spot (with a 30.8% increase.) At ninth place (24.4%
increase) is the region that SQM calls Central Coast WA, which covers the Mid West
and Wheatbelt.

Shelter WA says the record increases in rents, low vacancy rates and an
unprecedented demand on homelessness services is caused by a chronic shortage of
affordable housing supply.

Full media release here

The nation’s peak housing and homelessness bodies have strongly welcomed the agreement between Labor, the Greens and Cross bench to pass laws that establish the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF).

The $10 billion HAFF will create a pipeline of funding for social and affordable rental housing. The package of laws will also establish the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council as an independent statutory advisory body to plan the delivery of new social and affordable housing. It will also establish Housing Australia as the national housing agency.

An additional $1 billion will also be invested in the National Housing Infrastructure Facility to support new homes.

Wendy Hayhurst, CEO of Community Housing Industry Association, said the agreement would give community housing associations the confidence they needed to plan and deliver sorely needed homes.

“The passage of these laws is critically important,” Ms Hayhurst said. “This is the first step to easing the housing crisis and expanding the right type of housing supply, so that people on low and modest incomes have genuine housing options.

Full media release here

National Shelter, CHIA, and Homelessness Australia recently held an event with sector colleagues to hear about the scope and ambition needed in the Plan and the major policy reforms that are needed to address the housing crisis and to end homelessness.

Here is further information following the session:

• The recording of the session can be found here. 
• The slides from the presenters can be found here. This also includes a copy of a paper from Parsell, Petersen and Culhane on ‘Cost Offsets of Supportive Housing’. 
• Cameron Parsell mentioned Sky Constantine during his presentation. Sky’s work on consumer participation can be found here. 
• The AHURI report mentioned by Dr Chris Martin is here, and a shorter paper from The Conversation here. 
• You may be interested in an article from The Conversation by David McKenzie and Tammy Hand on what a national plan should do to reduce youth homelessness. 
• Cameron Parsell mentioned that he has book out soon which digs deeper into the elements of his presentation. You can pre-order his book here. 

We encourage you to utilise the presentations and their associated reports to inform your submission to the national plan. 

Keep an eye on the the schedule of formal consultation for any changes and new sessions. Homelessness Australia has a number of events scheduled to complement the formal consultations by DSS. You can find out more here. CHIA and National Shelter are working on a joint submission, and will be having additional sessions as well. More information to come. 

Today’s National Cabinet package of planning and rental reforms are a step in the right direction towards tackling the housing crisis, particularly the breakthrough on inclusionary zoning, according to peak housing advocacy bodies Community Housing Industry Association and National Shelter.

The package of reforms unveiled this afternoon includes: “Consideration of the phased introduction of inclusionary zoning and planning to support permanent affordable, social and specialist housing in ways that do not add to construction costs.”

The package also includes some notable reforms to improve renters’ rights, including moving towards a “national standard of no more than one rent increase per year for a tenant in the same property across fixed and ongoing agreements.”

“Inclusionary zoning promises to be a real policy breakthrough,” said Wendy Hayhurst, CEO of CHIA. “It should ensure that new housing developments include a percentage of social and affordable homes, significantly expanding housing options for people on low and modest incomes. The particularly great thing about it is that it’s not a tax on development – the ‘cost’ is baked into the price paid for the land.”

Full media release here

The ALP National Conference Fringe Program is a space for engaging the contemporary issues defining today’s social and political landscape. It is the starting point for good progressive policy, a place to explore ideas, and for organisations to build connections.

Over three days, thousands of people will attend over one hundred events, including panel discussions, Q&As, art displays, workshops and networking receptions, alongside the main conference at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on 17, 18 and 19 August 2023.

Unlike the rest of the ALP National Conference, the Fringe Program is open to the public and attracts thousands of people every year including over four hundred ALP National Conference delegates from across Australia, international dignitaries, commercial visitors, Members of Parliament, Senators, staffers, and other key decision makers.

Join CHIA for a panel session Meeting Australia’s Social and Affordable Housing Needs

The panel:

Wendy Hayhurst, CEO , CHIA

Dr Ryan Van den Noulewant, City Futures Research Centre UNSW

Dr Laurence Troy, Senior Lecturer in Urbanism University of Sydney

Aimee McVeigh, CEO QCOSS

17 August, 2-3pm

More info here

The Community Housing Industry Association of SA – CHIA SA – is the new name for the peak body representing Community Housing Providers (CHPs) in South Australia.

CHIA SA, previously the Community Housing Council of South Australia, supports and advocates for CHPs, which are not-for-profit organisations providing affordable housing to South Australians living on low incomes.

CHIA SA Chief Executive Officer Luke Westenberg said the new name and logo would align SA with the national peak body, the Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA), and peak bodies in other states. “The time is right for SA CHPs to be part of a national alliance,” said Mr Westenberg.

CHIA CEO Wendy Hayhurst said SA joined a growing national network of CHPs amid rising demand for affordable housing across all jurisdictions.

Full release here

As advocates for social housing and homelessness service providers, and industry we wish to collectively express our gratitude to the parliamentarians who have strengthened three pieces of legislation aimed at addressing Australia’s deep and considerable housing challenge.

The Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023, National Housing Supply and Affordability Council Bill 2023 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Housing Measures No. 1) Bill 2023 will go further and do more for Australians in need, thanks to amendments that guarantee annual dispersal of at least $500 million per year for the construction of social and affordable housing.

Time is now of the essence. The parliament rises for the winter break this Thursday and will not resume until August. Australia can not afford to delay its response to the housing crisis any longer.

Full shared statement here