HOUSING AS A RIGHT
HOUSING AS
A RIGHT
OUR COMMITMENTS Creating a social housing trigger whereby Housing ACT is guaranteed capital and recurrent funding sufficient to carry out a systematic transformation of our social housing system and achieve the following outcomes by 2030: Reduce the priority housing list wait time to an average of 30 days; Reduce the high needs housing list wait time to an average of 90 days; and Get the ACT ranking first in Australia in terms of public housing dwelling condition. Implementing a dedicated child and youth homelessness action plan, co-designed with the community sector, to eliminate homelessness among children and young people in the ACT. Establishing a Strata Commissioner to protect the interests of people in apartments and townhouses. WHAT WE STAND FOR Implementing a suite of affordable and sustainable housing solutions that meet the needs of all residents. Treating housing as necessary social infrastructure. Removing barriers to achieving the sensible, sustainable, affordable, liveable, climate-ready densification needed to address the housing crisis, including by meeting legislated development application timeframes. Facilitating the implementation of novel housing solutions at scale such as modular housing, cohousing developments, build-to-rent, and tiny homes – for example, through planning designations, design guides, and land disposal policies. Tackling our homelessness crisis through sufficiently funded wraparound services. Accelerating the timeline for developing the CSIRO Ginninderra site. Improving the customer service provided to public housing tenants, particularly with respect to maintenance and repairs. Maximising the use of Commonwealth funding available to deliver the housing our community needs. Increasing the integration of our community housing and public housing systems, including by introducing a digital territory-wide social housing register.
WHY WE NEED CHANGE
It’s a sad reality that basic shelter is now spoken about through a prism of crisis and desperation. The situation in Canberra is especially dire, and we’re hearing from people across the ACT who expect the government to take urgent action to address our worsening housing crisis. Older people without accumulated wealth feel forgotten by a housing system that’s leaving vulnerable people sleeping in cars, essential workers are facing increasing housing stress with no change in sight, and many young Canberrans feel they can’t afford their own future.
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Housing is consistently identified by ACTCOSS as the greatest cost-of-living pressure for low-income households in the ACT.
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Canberra is the second-most expensive capital city in the country to buy or rent a house.
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ACT’s lower-income households have the highest levels of rental stress of any state or territory.
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The ACT Wellbeing Framework shows a decreasing proportion of Canberrans report living in suitable housing.
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Our public housing stock has been reduced since 2012 despite population growth of 30 per cent.
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3,152 households are on the ACT public housing waiting list, which has grown by 80 per cent in the last six years.
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Priority housing applicants wait an average of 197 days to be housed and high-need applicants face a staggering 1,197-day wait.
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The ACT has Australia’s highest rate of persistent homelessness, with 45 per cent of people who become homeless remaining homeless for at least seven months, rising to 50.9 per cent for Indigenous people.
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In 2022-23, 569 women and children in the ACT who were subjected to domestic and family violence experienced forms of homelessness.
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From 2013 to 2023, the ACT saw a 64 per cent rise in women and children sleeping rough or in cars, with a 29 per cent increase in the past year alone.
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A growing proportion of Canberrans are living under strata title, many of whom report being charged disproportionately high rates, facing barriers to increasing the electrification and energy efficiency of their dwellings, being charged unreasonably high strata management and insurance fees, and struggling to get defects rectified in a timely, satisfactory manner.