Everyone is getting more ambitious when it comes to housing. Except one party
23 September 2024
In the midst of a housing crisis, a focus of policy debate has been “location, location, location.”
It is important that this does not distract from the main objective of ensuring everyone has safe, affordable housing, and that means rapidly expanding the stock of social housing. It is a numbers game.
This is especially important following the decrease of over 1000 public housing dwellings between 2011 and 2024.
Social housing is not merely a safety net for those doing it toughest in Canberra, it is essential to building a fairer and more socially cohesive society.
Make no mistake, Canberra’s housing stock needs transformative change, following a steady decline in the proportion of all housing which is public housing, from 12.2 per cent at self-government in 1989 to just 5.7 per cent now.
Ahead of this election, ACTCOSS and ACT Shelter have been clear that to address homelessness, Canberra needs to return to at least 10 per cent of all housing stock as social housing by 2036. This means adding around 1000 social housing dwellings per year, and potentially more depending on population growth and the overall pace of housing construction in the territory.
To date this election, parties and candidates have responded to the desperate need for more social housing. As election commitments have been made, they have been setting new benchmarks for the parties making promises, and social housing is rightly being centered in election policy.
The Liberals’ recent housing policy statement would see 10 per cent of the new land release to go to social housing. Given an ambition of 125,000 new dwellings by 2050, this would mean 12,500 new social housing dwellings, or 500 per year. This is far better than what Canberra has experienced over recent decades, assuming that no current social housing stock is demolished or sold.
Editorial originally published in The Canberra Times on September 23rd, 2024.
Read the editorial here.
For more information or comment, please contact
Devin Bowles, CEO, ACTCOSS, on 0413 435 080 or 02 6202 7200