Homelessness and affordable housing

Last week I was walking from Roma Street Station to the top end of George Street, the hub of State Government. I was meeting friends for lunch and on the way passed a few apparently homeless young men on park benches, one tucked inside a doorway, others hovering around intersections, nervously smoking.

One young person was sitting on the footpath with a cardboard sign that read “homeless – please help”. I was too preoccupied on my mission so I ignored the hat, not even dropping a few coins on the return journey.

So now I’m hunting around the house for a decent sleeping bag and a beanie, hoping to make amends for my lapse in empathy by participating in a fund-raising community sleep-out on June 29. (If I chicken out I promise to donate money to the cause.)

Our local member Andrew Powell (Member for Glass House) has agreed to participate in the annual sleep-out.

Mr Powell wrote about this in his regular Glasshouse Country and Maleny News column. He will be among local dignitaries, business people and community members sleeping rough outside the Maroochydore Surf Club on June 29. Participants will be given a sheet of cardboard to sleep on and fed a simple meal of soup and bread rolls. Mr Powell says there are 1,500 homeless men, women and children on the Sunshine Coast.

The St Vincent de Paul northern diocese (which is organising the sleep-out), has provided support over the eight months to March 2017 to 450 homeless people, including 250 children.

The gesture by the Member for Glass House is admirable, but this is a problem that has, at best, been patched up by successive Queensland governments. The Sunshine Coast, which has a paucity of affordable and public housing, is named as one of the regional areas to be targeted by the new housing strategy.

The Rental Tenancies Authority published median rents for the Sunshine Coast region in December 2016. Tenants pay between $315 and $400 a week for a three-bedroom home or a two-bedroom unit. Rents are cheaper in the Hinterland areas like Beerwah, Peachester, Mooloolah, Palmwoods, Hunchy and Woombye, but public transport is limited and one needs a reliable car to live in these areas.

Meanwhile, Queensland has a plan

As the debate continues about the lack of affordable housing and how to find beds for homeless people, the Queensland Government has a 10-year plan.

The Government had some fairly positive (and uncritical), press about its plan to provide more than 5000 social and affordable houses. The $1.8 billion Housing Strategy announced in this week’s State Budget aims to get the private sector involved and utilise State government-owned land.

Treasurer Curtis Pitt said it was the biggest commitment to housing in Queensland’s recent history. The strategy will see more than 5,500 social and affordable homes built over the next decade. Eight hundred homes are to be built each year for the first five years. This is about double the number of social and affordable homes built in 2016-2017.

The Minister said the housing strategy includes $1.2 billion to renew the existing social housing property portfolio. A $420 million housing construction program aims to boost the supply of social and affordable housing. This includes $3.5 million to build two refuges for women and children escaping domestic and family violence.

The Government is also allocating $75 million to advance home ownership in ‘discrete’ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

At first glance this sounds like a bold plan, made with some compassion for those struggling to survive in a competitive housing market. On second glance, it is unlikely to make a dent in Queensland’s 25,000+ public housing waiting list.

Too little, too late?

Public and social housing comprised 4.8% of the total national housing stock, according to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (2011 Census data). AHURI’s research showed that at a minimum, the social housing system would have to have been around 43% larger (on 2011 figures) to accommodate all those who met public housing eligibility criteria and who pay more than 50% rent.

Nevertheless the Queensland strategy has been welcomed by the construction industry and the housing sector, as it is said to provide 450 jobs. One of the more positive aspects of the plan is that 5% to 25% of the land used for these purposes will be land already owned by State Government. This implies vacant or under-utilised land near public buildings like hospitals and schools. So maybe at last the under-privileged will get to live in the middle-ring suburbs of Brisbane rather than 49 km away in fast-growing Logan City.

In December 2016, the State Government announced a $1 billion investment plan to build 3000 new houses in Logan City over 20 years. Minister for Housing and Public Works Mick de Brenni said the Better Neighbourhoods Logan initiative would deliver a range of economic and social benefits, including 410 new social and affordable dwellings over the next five years and over 3,000 new homes by 2036. A spokesman confirmed that the 3000 social and affordable homes are part of the Budget housing strategy. That leads me to surmise that another 4000 homes will be built in other regions over 10 years, on average, 40 new houses per year for each of the 10 regions identified by State Development.

The strategy shows some progressive thinking in that new social or affordable housing strategy should incorporate:

• Rental bond loans to help tenants meet the private market;
• Provision for public housing tenants to own their own home through shared equity loans or rent-to-buy schemes;
• A new Housing Partnerships Office to streamline processes and lower costs and time frames;
• Private sector involvement through expressions of interest to develop small, medium and large developments in regional centres;
• $29.4 million to provide front line services for victims of domestic violence and young people at risk of homelessness. This includes a $20 million boost for ‘youth foyers’ – supported accommodation for young people aged 16-25 who are either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Looking after property investors

The State Budget announcement follows a plan revealed in the 2017 Federal Budget to allow a tax break to invest in social housing.

Retail and institutional investors are being offered a 10% increase in capital gains discount (from 50% to 60%). The Australian Financial Review reported that the scheme, aimed at Management Investment Trusts, would allow the discount to MITs and their investors, provided they offer the properties at an affordable rent for at least 10 years. The AFR said the Government also planned to issue bonds backed by rental income from social housing, replacing bank debt issued to approved social housing developers.

While governments play ‘catch up’ with affordable housing, the onset of winter should turn our thoughts to the homeless.

As Andrew Powell observed, it is not a matter of choice.

“In many cases homelessness comes about through factors out of a person’s control – whether this is mental or physical illness, financial instability, lack of education, domestic violence or something else entirely,” he wrote in the GCMN.

Yes, and sometimes all of the above.