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.