The state’s advocacy bodies for low-income housing consumers have welcomed the Labor party’s commitments to expand affordable rental housing in New South Wales.
The NSW Council of Social Service (NCOSS), Shelter NSW, and the NSW Federation of Housing Associations were commenting on an announcement by Minister for Housing, Cherie Burton, that a Labor government would provide $230 million package over 4 years to affordable rental housing.
Michelle Burrell, acting director of NCOSS, said that the large number of low-income households in housing stress – 156,000 households – required urgent attention.
Mary Perkins, executive officer of Shelter NSW, said that her organization had identified a capital injection for nonprofit affordable housing as a key task for an incoming government after this Saturday’s state election.
Adam Farrar, executive director of the NSW Federation of Housing Associations, was optimistic that the initiatives would enable community housing organizations to enter into partnerships with the private sector to expand their asset base.
While the organizations welcomed the commitment as a first step, they noted that the amount of new money proposed to be allocated for expanding community housing fell short of the $400 million over 4 years that had been proposed in community sector pre-election materials.
They also welcome the expansion of the Private Rental Options program.
They said it was disappointing that the Government had not yet announced its wider NSW Affordability Housing Strategy flagged at the release of the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy. The Strategy was to be a set of wider commitments on housing affordability and was expected to have been released in the middle of last year.
The public needs to have the Affordability Housing Strategy in front of them so to see what it is exactly that the Government intends to spend the money on, and to see how today’s announcement fits in with its broader commitment to promote housing affordability, they said.
The three organizations also called on the Opposition to match or better the Labor party’s promise.
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