Election candidates’ positions on social housing

Hans Lovejoy

With an acute shortage of available housing across the nation, and in Byron Shire, The Echo asked candidates for the March 25 NSW election their social housing policy position.

Social housing is described by the government as, ‘secure and affordable rental housing for people on low incomes with housing needs’.

Those seeking social housing either apply to the NSW government’s Department of Communities & Justice (public housing), or to nongovernment social housing providers (community housing). According to www.nsw. gov.au, ‘There are currently long waiting periods for social housing in NSW’.

Affordable housing, on the other hand, can be exploited by developers through loopholes within the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP). For example, the Housing SEPP stipluates a 15 year sunset clause for affordable housing. After that, the property can be rented at market rates. According to Council’s recent submission to the IPC’s Short Term Rental Accommodation Planning Proposal, there are 70 people housed in Byron Shire in community housing, and 200 in social [public] housing. There are also 221 rough sleepers in the Shire, which is on par with numbers found in Sydney.

Greens’ Smith

Sitting MP, Tamara Smith (Greens) told The Echo that the Greens recently announced their plan to ‘rescue housing in regional NSW’ through a $1 billion fund that will deliver at least 2,500 public and social homes in regional NSW each year for the next ten years’.

‘The plan includes provisions to immediately assist those impacted by floods in the Northern Rivers by boosting the buyback program and fully funding works to raise and retrofit eligible homes’.

Labor’s Broadley

Labor candidate, Andrew Broadley, provided The Echo with a statement by

NSW Labor ‘on how it plans to reduce administrative processes in the provision of social housing’.

It reads, ‘An elected Minns Labor government will create a new agency called “Homes NSW” that will drive the delivery of more housing options and manage social housing to tackle the state’s housing crisis.

‘NSW Labor will merge the Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC), Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO) and DCJ Housing into one entity.

NSW Labor say they will merge social housing construction, maintenance and tenant management, which is ‘split across various government agencies and departments’, into a ‘single, one-stop social and affordable housing agency’.

‘With the Housing Register wait list increasing to 57,550 in 2022, including the number of Priority Applicants (6,519) increasing by 12 per cent in just one year, it is abundantly clear that addressing the housing crisis is a priority.’

Broadley added, ‘It is important that there is a plan for social housing as our Northern Rivers population continues to increase. I will pursue this as well as affordable housing if I am elected’.

‘NSW Labor’s build-to rentprogram will provide housing for essential workers.

‘This is one of the measures that ensure that there are nurses for our hospitals, teachers in our schools’.

Nationals’ Booyens

Nationals candidate, Josh Booyens told The Echo, ‘The NSW Liberal and Nationals government has increased social housing in NSW by nine per cent over ten years, more than double the national figure of four per cent’.

‘NSW has more than 157,000 social homes – as many as Victoria, Queensland, and ACT combined. The community housing sector has significantly contributed to this.

‘The NSW Liberal and Nationals government has Implemented the over $1 billion Social and Affordable Housing Fund (SAHF), delivering access to 3,040 homes across NSW, with more to be completed soon’.

‘The NSW Liberal and Nationals government is investing $2.8 billion in housing through the 2022 Housing Package – the state’s biggest investment in decades to address end-to-end housing’.

Booyens says the current government has allocated ‘around $1.379 billion in new funding to the NSW Land and Housing Corporation since 2020, including $868 million in stimulus funding as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, $168 million in flood recovery funding, $43 million in funding for domestic and family violence refuges and $300 million in new investment through the 2022 state budget’.

‘We are presented with a unique opportunity with greenfield development locations currently being investigated by the NRRC following the Lismore floods.

‘If elected, I will advocate for a mandated mix of social and affordable housing through this process’.

Independent Loughrey

Independent candidate, Kevin Loughrey told The Echo in part, ‘There are many downsides about social housing and it should be, in my opinion, a stop-gap with the aim of helping people own their own home. Some social housing programs involve the person “buying” a low-cost house by paying their rent. If they sell the house, they get to keep what is left over once the debt is recovered’.

‘My priority is to lower the cost of housing construction and the cost of land.

‘How to reduce the cost of housing? Increase supply and remove green and red tape. Increasing supply means releasing more land for housing. In doing this, the land should be released as individual blocks with preference being given to owner builders or families who then go and contract a builder’.

To read the candidates’ full replies, visit www.echo.net.au.