The Department of Housing is looking to complete a comprehensive growth and development plan for the community housing sector as part of the broader State affordable housing strategy before the end of this year. The process is due to start in a matter of weeks.

Naturally, the Department will look to develop this plan in conjunction with sector stakeholders. As the peak body for all community housing providers in the State, CHCWA will look to play a vibrant role in this process to ensure that the completed plan is ambitious, achievable and looks to unlock the potential of our sector to ameliorate the State’s social and affordable housing deficit.

Your input on some key strategic questions is vital to help inform our work on this project. To that end, CHCWA is holding a meeting for community housing providers at 10am (so you can avoid the traffic) on June 11 at Claisebrook Lotteries House. The meeting will finish at 12.30 and we will provide lunch.

I would ask that you, or a representative from your organisation, make every effort to participate. We are aware attendance may not be possible for everyone and will provide a way for organisations that cannot make it to participate. More information will be posted to the blog as it becomes available.

In the meantime please RSVP to Dannielle (reception null@null communityhousing NULL.com NULL.au)as soon as possible as we may book a larger venue.

The Community Housing Coalition of WA has today called for Government to transfer management of 5,000 public housing dwellings to the community housing sector to satisfy the twin goals of addressing the State’s looming budget deficit and ameliorating the State’s chronic social and affordable housing shortage.

“Last week, the Treasurer, Troy Buswell, made clear that Government spending cuts will be necessary in light of the State’s structural budget deficit.  A preliminary management transfer of 5,000 properties to community housing providers in the State would do much to improve the State’s fiscal position. Once transferred, all costs associated with maintaining those properties would become the responsibility of the community housing provider in question. In fact, no other government funding would be required,” said CHCWA Executive Officer, Barry Doyle. Read more →

The weekly blog post email, once known (and still known to many of you) as the CHCpen, has had a makeover!

We hope this new format makes reading through the latest news from CHCWA easier.

We have also put a sign-up form for newsletter on our website, making it easier and quicker for your colleagues and friends to sign up.

CHCWA’s Insider News is a summary of all posts we have made throughout the week. We post about relevant changes to legislation, training sessions, events and news items of interest.

The email arrives on Friday afternoon so there is no spamming of your inbox, and we don’t use the emails on this mailing list for any other purpose.

The Australian Government has today opened a new round of incentives under the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS).

NRAS Round 5 seeks to allocate incentives for up to 10,000 affordable rental properties across Australia to be built by 30 June 2016.

Read more →

The ownership of 1,300 public housing properties in NSW will be transferred to nine community housing providers.

The NSW government said the said the properties are already managed by not-for-profit providers for people on the social housing register. It said the change is aimed at providing the non-government sector with a greater base of capital against which it can borrow money from the private sector to invest in more housing, increasing the amount of social housing in the state.

NSW Minister for Finance and Services Greg Pearce said 1, 302 NSW Land and Housing Corporation properties would be transferred.

Read more →

A recently released Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Investigative Panel (http://www NULL.ahuri NULL.edu NULL.au/publications/projects/p71016/) has focused on the need for, barriers to, and ways to encourage, institutional investment, i.e. investment by banks, unit trusts, superannuation funds or pension funds, in rental housing that is affordable to low- and moderate-income households. Institutional investment is relevant to Community Housing Providers as they are an instrument through which it will occur and it has the potential to provide organisations with new private financing options and support.

Read more →

CHCWA’s annual council meeting will be held on Tuesday, 21 May, at Claisebrook Lotteries House from 9.30 am to 12 noon.

All WA community housing providers are welcome to attend.

Please RSVP to Susan Winterton (susan NULL.winterton null@null communityhousing NULL.com NULL.au) by Friday, 3 May.

(http://www NULL.coag NULL.gov NULL.au/sites/all/sites/default/files/private/images/Dec%20COAG NULL.jpg)The COAG Select Council on Housing and Homelessness met today in Melbourne. A communique was issued this morning which, in addition to what is listed below, also said that funding to continue the NPAH has been allocated by the states and territories (click to read more).

National Rental Affordability Scheme
The Australian Government reaffirmed its long term commitment to invest in affordable rental housing for low to moderate income earners through the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). Ministers noted that the Australian Government would open a dedicated NRAS round to support ‘shovel ready’ affordable housing projects on 18 April and close on 22 May 2013.  The Shovel Ready round would seek applications for approximately 1,000 dwellings to be substantially completed by June 2014.

Read more →

Instead of pursuing fruitless reforms to the planning system in an effort to increase housing supply, Government should provide adequate funding and other support to Australia’s non-profit housing developers who are targeting the area of greatest housing shortage: housing that is affordable to moderate and low income earners.

That’s the conclusion of University of Sydney academics Nicole Gurran and Peter Phibbs in an opinion piece on The Conversation (http://theconversation NULL.edu NULL.au/home-truths-are-planners-really-to-blame-for-our-housing-shortage-12723).

The recently released National Housing Supply Council’s Housing Supply and Affordability Issues 2012-13 report, which you can read about here, blames land use planning systems for a housing supply failure, and by extension, the affordability problems affecting low and moderate income renters and those seeking to enter home ownership. The NHSC claims that the main culprits in limiting housing supply and pushing up prices are lengthy planning approval time frames, uncertainty over whether planning approval will be forthcoming and how long it will take, and development contributions towards the costs of infrastructure in new developments.

Read more →

The Community Housing Coalition of Western Australia (CHCWA), the peak industry body for community and affordable housing providers, has called on both major parties to publish their respective policy positions on how they propose to tackle WA’s significant social housing deficit.

“Housing affordability is one of the biggest cost of living issues for West Australians leading up to this election, and yet, we are still waiting for both major parties to issue detailed proposals on the biggest housing issue of all: how we are going to house those people who are currently languishing on a social housing waitlist that is bursting at the seams,” CHCWA Executive Office, Barry Doyle, said.

Read more →

CHCWA is in need of photographs for a publication we are working on. The publication, ‘What is Community Housing’, will attempt to answer the many questions we are often asked about community housing including what it is, how many providers there are, if they are all the same, how the system works, etc. Photographs will help make the document accessible to a wide audience.

We are particularly looking for photographs of staff or tenants of community housing organisations in WA, but pictures of your organisational offices and accommodation are also most welcome.

CHCWA understands photographs of your tenants and facilities may be subject to sensitivity and privacy concerns. Please only submit photographs you are comfortable with being published and made public.

The document will be made available in both print and online versions.

Please email Suzie (susan NULL.winterton null@null communityhousing NULL.com NULL.au)ASAP with photographs or any questions. If possible the photographs should be high resolution, preferably 300 dpi. If you submit photographs please include in your email the details, e.g. organisation, location of photograph.