News

On March 9, the Parliament passed the Housing Amendment (Community Housing Providers) Bill 2009, which will enable the transfer of title of Land and Housing Corporation dwellings to community housing providers. more…

On February 18, the Commonwealth Government released a discussion paper on a national quality framework for services for homeless people. Public consultations are currently being held across Australia, including in Tamworth on March 18 and Wagga Wagga on March 25. more…

Also on February 18, the NSW Premier announced a Premier's Advisory Council on Homelessness, which will advise on reducing homelessness in this state. more…

A report on the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan has noted that, as at December 31, construction of 6,675 social housing dwellings has commenced, and repair and maintenance work has been completed on over 42,000 dwellings. more…

The Retirement Villages Amendment Act 2008 and the Retirement Villages Regulation 2009 commenced operation on March 1. more… Fair Trading is conducting information sessions about the legislative changes. more…

On December 21, the Registrar of Community Housing announced that it will be responsible for assessing Aboriginal community housing providers seeking registration with the Aboriginal Housing Office, under the Provider Assessment and Registration System. The new registration system will commence in April. more…

Also on December 21, the Commonwealth Government released a progress report on implementing the homelessness white paper, entitled Along the road home. more…

Housing NSW is developing Regional Homelessness Action Plans to facilitate reforms to the homelessness service system.  In December, Housing NSW issued a regional planning framework. more… Information is available on the NSW Implementation Plan for the National Partnership on Homelessness from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs more… and also from the Ministerial Council for Federal Financial Relations. more…

On November 26, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth issued a report on its inquiry into the principles and service standards for new homelessness legislation. more…

National Shelter's 2009 policy platform, Housing Australia affordably, was released on November 24. more…

In a report to the NSW Parliament on November 11, the NSW Ombudsman found that the implementation of a strategy developed to assist people with mental health issues living in social housing to sustain their housing (the Joint Guarantee of Service for People With Mental Health Problems and Disorders Living in Aboriginal, Community and Public Housing) was not effective. more…

Fair Trading released a draft Residential Tenancies Bill 2009. more… Shelter NSW welcomed the draft legislation. more…

On October 26, the Commonwealth Government issued a response to the report by the Senate Select Committee on Housing Affordability in Australia (which was entitled A good house is hard to find: housing affordability in Australia and was released on 16 June 2008). more…

In October the Ministerial Council for Federal Financial Relations released the NSW Implementation Plan for the National Partnership on Social Housing and the Social Housing Schedule to the National Partnership Agreement on the Nation Building and Jobs Plan. more…

The NSW Legislative Council Standing Committee on Social Issues issued a report following its inquiry into homelessness and low-cost rental accommodation on September 24. The government is due to release a response to the report by March 24. more… Shelter NSW submitted a response to the inquiry. more…

The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs has contracted Ernst and Young to develop a financial modelling tool to demonstrate the financial returns that may be available through investing in residential property supported by the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). more… A round three call for applications under NRAS closes on August 31. Applications which propose to construct a minimum of 1,000 dwellings, applications which link to proposals under the Social Housing Initiative of the Nation Building and Economic Stimulus Plan and applications which seek to have the private sector develop state-owned land that has been released for residential development, are encouraged. more… For details on the provision of incentives to support NRAS projects by Housing NSW, select here…

Updated 10-Mar-2010

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