Members from around the country voted yesterday to make some changes to CHIA’s constitution in a move that will strengthen CHIA’s relationship with state peak community housing bodies.
CHIA Chair Michael Lennon says members overwhelmingly supported the changes at a Special General Meeting, held in Adelaide.
‘This is an important milestone for CHIA. These constitutional changes will streamline and formalise the relationship between CHIA and the state peaks, enabling them to provide advice and input to the CHIA board on matters relevant to their state.
‘We anticipate that the Community Housing Federation of Victoria and the NSW Federation of Housing Associations will seek associate membership of CHIA, which will enable them to nominate a Director to the CHIA Board.’
In other states and territories, members will continue to elect the Region Director who will represent them on the CHIA Board.
‘In bedding down our formal relationships with each state and territory, CHIA is in a stronger position to provide a nation-wide perspective on national issues for the community housing sector,’ Michael says.
Grab the opportunity to have an impact on Victoria’s housing affordability crisis in this challenging part-time role as a policy and projects role for the Community Housing Federation of Victoria (CHFV).
In this part-time role – 30.4 hours a week (can be worked over four or five days) – you will play a critical role in policy development, project management and advocacy for the community housing industry body. You will be working closely with our member organisations, government and other stakeholders to develop, promote and represent the sector.
Click here for details.
The community housing sector in Queensland has expanded its influence nationally with a landmark agreement between the state peak body, CHPs for QLD, and the national peak, the Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA).
The bilateral agreement means that membership of CHPs for QLD will include membership of CHIA, which represents the community housing industry in all states and territories.
Chair of CHPs for QLD, Josephine Ahern, says the agreement will enable Queensland community housing organisations to have input into national policies that impact on their day-to-day activities and lift their ability to expand services to meet the needs of disadvantaged Australians.
‘CHPs for QLD is focused on representing the sector on State issues but Federal issues also impact on our members,’ Ms Ahern says.
‘This agreement with CHIA will provide a forum for our members to have their voices heard, it will enable them to be kept in the loop on Federal matters and they will also be able to access CHIA’s resources.’
CHIA CEO, Peta Winzar, welcomed the agreement formalising the relationship that has been fostered with the Queensland community housing peak.
‘We are keen to get input from CHPs in QLD about national policies and sector-wide matters,’ Ms Winzar says.
‘We want to hear the perspectives of Queensland providers on national matters, be it housing affordability in general, the new National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, or the impact of climate change on community housing operations. This agreement will open the way for this to happen.’
The community housing sector has delivered a comprehensive response to the Productivity Commission’s draft report into human services, including housing, which was released in June.
The submission was a collaborative effort between CHIA, the state and territory community housing peaks, and other key industry players.
The submission advocated for a whole-of-system approach represented by a National Affordable Housing Strategy, which would carefully coordinate initiatives across all levels of government, the public, not-for-profit and for-profit sectors and which would make necessary reforms to tax, welfare and housing assistance programs in a coherent way.
“The “broken” system described in the Draft Report derives not from a lack of mechanisms to support consumer choice and a deficit in the accountability of public housing systems, though both need to be tackled. It derives from decades of underinvestment that has left the social housing system struggling to cope with overwhelming demand. A social housing system that is not broken caters not just for the choices of individuals but needs the needs of the community generally – by providing homes that are decent and well-maintained, by supporting inclusive and integrated communities and by ensuring that providers are accountable to tenants and financially sound.”
Representatives from CHIA and the NSW Federation of Housing Associations will present the report to the commission’s public hearing in Canberra on Tuesday, July 25.
Click here to read the full submission.
Shelter SA welcomes the Targets outlined for social housing in the next financial year, in particular the revised claims process for Housing SA Bond guarantees to increase protection for private renters.
The activity indicator on the number of public housing rental opportunities provided by Housing SA is reducing from 38,710 (the 2016-17 Estimated Result) to a projected 34,050 in 2017-18. The reduction reflects approximately 4,000 properties that will be transferred to the community housing sector and it is assumed that the remaining 660 of those properties will be sold, further reducing the public housing available to people living on low incomes across South Australia. The overall reduction in public housing will worsen housing stress for people living on low incomes and potentially increase the number of people experiencing homelessness, adding further strain on an at capacity service system.
Shelter SA is very pleased that there has been no reduction in assistance to people living on low incomes through the Housing SA Private Rental Assistance Program with a slight increase in customers expected in the next financial year. It is also pleasing to see a slight increase of 415 high needs clients who will be placed in housing by Housing SA, no reduction in the number of rough sleepers assisted into accommodation through specialist homelessness services and a modest increase in the number of Aboriginal customers assisted into housing by Housing SA from 4,230 to 4,590.
The National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, now combined with the National Affordable Housing Agreement is assured in the South Australian Budget for the next 12 months – $18.1 million in partnership with the Commonwealth Government. The new National Affordable Housing and Homelessness Agreement is yet to be negotiated.
A new revenue measure will see foreign residential property buyers pay a stamp duty surcharge from 1 January 2018 which will amount to $48.8 million over four years – it would be ideal if some of this revenue could be used to create more social housing and avoid the need to continue to sell off our public housing assets.
Click here to view the SA State Budget.
With thanks to Shelter SA for this report.
Sydney-based community housing provider Bridge Housing took out a gold award at the 2017 Australasian Reporting Awards for its 2016 annual report.
It was Bridge’s fourth consecutive gold award and fifth overall.
The Annual Report Awards are aimed at improving the communication of business information and the standards of financial reporting and are designed to enable organisation to benchmark the quality of their annual reports against world best practice.
Bridge was competing against entries from New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Russia.
Bridge CEO John Nicolades says, ‘The recognition we receive through these awards is warmly welcomed and further motivates our Board, management team and staff to strive for best practice governance, communication with our stakeholders and financial reporting in the year ahead.
‘Bridge Housing takes pride in being an organisation that always works to high governance standards and transparency. Congratulations to the other winners for their hard work and achievement.’
You can view Bridge’s annual report here.
Entries for the 2018 ARA will open on September 1.
CHFV Board member and Swinburne University academic Terry Burke has put up a spirited argument in support of community housing as a sound platform for fair social housing in an article featured in The Conversation this morning.
CHFV mobilised its response in The Conversation to tackle recent criticisms made in the online publication, and other media, around the transfer of public housing to community housing as the government ‘wriggling out’ of its responsibilities.
Prof Burke clearly states the case for community housing providers playing a key role in public housing renewal programs.
‘The (not-for-profit) sector can grasp the opportunities offered by policy reform in a way the public sector cannot, and provide sustained affordability and security,’ Prof Burke argues.
Click here to read the full article.
Don’t miss your opportunity to hear about major issues impacting our sector, directly from those in the hot seat.
Book your seats now to hear from Assistant Minister to the Treasurer, the Hon Michael Sukkar, about the Federal Government’s housing initiatives such as the bond aggregator, and Productivity Commissioner Stephen King, who is presiding over the current investigation into ways to improve the delivery of Human Services – including affordable housing.
CHIA and the state and territory peaks are compiling the sector’s response to the Productivity Commission’s draft report Introducing Competition and Informed User Choice In Human Services.
The report, which includes housing, is looking at innovative ways to improve outcomes through introducing the principles of competition and informed user choice whilst maintaining or improving quality of service.
It is expected CHIA Chair Michael Lennon, CHIA CEO Peta Winzar, and NSW Federation of Community Housing’s CEO Wendy Hayhurst will make a presentation to the commission’s public hearing in Canberra on Tuesday, July 25.
The sector response will be made available to CHIA members.
Melbourne’s The Age newspaper has today published an opinion piece by CHFV Executive Officer Lesley Dredge that calls for a creative approach to the Victorian Government’s public housing renewal program.
The article reinforces the urgent need to revitalise ageing public housing estates and demonstrates the ability of not-for-profit community housing providers to deliver vibrant, mixed-use precincts that provide tenants with the dignity that comes from having secure, affordable and appropriate housing to call home.
Shelter Tas welcomes the State Government’s commitment of $62m over the next 2 years in its Budget 2017-18. While this creates a solid base for implementing Affordable Housing Strategy, without additional investment in social housing, Tasmania will continue to fall well behind meeting demand for affordable housing. We are disappointed that the $60m Stamp Duty windfall created by the current housing boom has not been re-invested into social housing to alleviate the growing rental crisis that is squeezing low income households out of the housing market.
The key features of this year’s Budget that we particularly welcome are:
Shelter Tas urges the Tasmanian Government to negotiate away the State’s public housing debt as part of the new national housing agreement that was announced recently in the Federal Budget. Tasmania can no longer afford to return half the State’s annual funding allocation, almost $16m each year, back to the Federal Government.
Click here for further information on housing and homelessness initiatives in the Tasmanian Budget 2017-18, read the Shelter Tas media release here or ABC article ‘Tasmanian budget report card: Generally good results, but some room for improvement’ here.
Reprinted with thanks to Shelter Tasmania’s eNews
CHFV’s board and members have continued to demonstrate their strong support of the Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA) by agreeing to adopt the trading name CHIA Vic in the new financial year.
The ‘trading as’ name change is part of CHFV’s compact with CHIA, which will it act as the Victorian state branch of the national organisation, whilst retaining its own legal entity. The move is a natural progression of CHFV’s strong support of CHIA, which dates back to 2015.
CHFV will launch a new website and branding in light of the name change.
CHIA expects to successfully complete negotiations with the other state peaks by the end of June this year, which will clarify how the organisations will work together to advance the community housing industry.