What is Community Housing?
|
|
|||
| |
What is Community Housing? |
|
||
| HomeAbout
CHFV
What is Community Housing? Find HousingTrainingPartnerships ClearinghouseEmploymentMember ResourcesPolicy CentreEvents Links Contact Us |
Quick links
Community HousingCommunity housing is a type of social housing offering secure and affordable housing option for people on low to moderate incomes and is owned or managed by not-for-profit organisations. The Community Housing Federation of Victoria (CHFV) is the peak body for community housing organisations in Victoria.
CHFV members provide a range of community housing types. Some of our community housing organisations are specialists (for example, those who house women or people with disabilities). Others are integrated services that provide secure long term rental housing, transitional housing, and homelessness crisis response.
Long term housing includes detached houses, units, apartments and rooming houses, responding to the diversity of community need and aspiration.
The long term housing options includes cooperative housing which is comprised of two streams: Rental Housing coops (RHCs) who manage dwellings provided to them by the Victorian Government, and Common Equity rental coops (CERCs) whose dwellings are owned by Common Equity Housing Ltd - a not-for profit company established for the purpose.
Rooming houses range from fully self-contained bedsits to traditional rooms and many are single sex facilities.
Transitional housing is short term housing provided as a response to prevent homelessness and is funded by the Office of Housing http://www.housing.vic.gov.au/crisis-housing.
There are around 8,000 tenancies under management by community housing organisations in Victoria, and this is expected to double over the next decade. All CHOs provide expert tenancy management of low-income households and for tenants with special needs. They have particular expertise in maintaining high occupancy rates and strong rental returns.
CHOs might be not for profit companies, but they are also “not for loss”. They run lean businesses, and they make commercial decisions based on normal commercial considerations such as viability, risk exposure, cash flow, long-term return. CHOs range from small coops with 12 houses to housing associations with assets worth well over $100m.
Community housing tenants make good neighboursCommunity housing tenants are generally people who already live in the neighbourhood or have long established links to the area. Not only that, the actual provision of the housing is often the result of hard working local people and groups finding the resources to give a home to members of their own community. For example St Mary's Catholic Church in Dandenong provides pastoral care to the elderly residents in the units they built with Melbourne Affordable Housing (see http://www.melbourneaffordablehousing.com.au/index.php?page=st-mary-s-dandenong).
In another example AFL football champion and premiership Kangaroos player, Glenn Archer helped his friend Mare-Nepe Willcox, a young cerebral palsy sufferer move into a purpose built property that was built by Metricon, on land supplied by the Moreland City Council. The home features wheelchair access and other special modifications to bathrooms, living areas and wardrobe spaces. In addition, water and energy saving devices have been incorporated to help reduce Mare-Nepe's ongoing costs. Community Housing Ltd undertakes the tenancy management. (see http://www.metricon.com.au/news/content/pressreleases.aspx?articleid=56&zoneid=29)
Post occupancy surveys reveal that the majority of neighbours have no concerns about the operation of community housing in their neighbourhood and many had positive reactions. There has also been a great deal of anecdotal evidence that few complaints are received by housing managers once housing is established.
Neighbourhood protocols Housing associations often have obligations under the Residential Tenancies Act to ensure that the privacy, peace and quiet and enjoyment of tenants and neighbouring residents are not affected by their tenants and their visitors. Generally, housing associations also seek to maintain good relations with neighbours to community housing properties. Neighbours also appreciate that housing associations are responsive when problems occur and provide neighbours with a name of a tenancy worker and contact information for discussion about problems or issues and often a 24 hour, 7 days per week telephone number in the event of an emergency. This is an opportunity they rarely have with private rental housing.
Impact on property values The evidence so far is that it has no impact, particularly if the development is well managed and well designed. This finding has been confirmed by overseas research.
Architectural, design and other awards
Port Phillip Housing Association
Community Housing Ltd CHL was declared the Victorian Category Winner for Best Multi-Dwelling Development (for more than five dwellings) at the Delfin Grand Masters Awards 2008 event. The judging panel consisted of Delfin Architects and independent industry professionals. Developments were judged on quality, value for money, practicalities, colour schemes and end user comfort, energy efficiency measures and other criteria CHL won the ‘2008 Special Purpose Housing of the Year’ category at the HIA’s gala annual awards event, for a recently finished home in Werribee, and dominated the category with a runner-up and finalist results for homes in Bairnsdale and Craigeburn respectively.
Common Equity Housing Ltd
Accreditation and StandardsAimsThe aim of the National Community Housing Standards is to set out standards of good practice in service delivery in the community housing sector throughout Australia. The standards attempt to cover all the elements that constitute a high quality housing service for tenants in community housing. BackgroundThe National Standards for Community Housing were introduced in 1998, by the National Community Housing Forum (NCHF), following extensive consultation with the sector. Funding for their development was provided by the Commonwealth Government. A National Accreditation Council was established, to monitor and review the implementation of the standards. As well as the Standards themselves, the Forum also developed:
The Standards were reviewed and updated in 2003. The Accreditation processIndividual states have responsibility for implementation of the Standards. Since 1999, the NSW and Queensland governments have funded the establishment of Standards and Accreditation units and a number of community housing providers in those states have achieved full three year accreditation. There is no formal mechanism for accreditation against the standards in Victoria, however community housing providers are being encouraged to begin the 'self evaluation' phase of the accreditation process as a quality improvement exercise. At this stage, the Victorian government says it is committed to the introduction of a formal accreditation process, but there is no timetable for this nor have resources yet been committed. CHFV continues to lobby the government for the establishment of a formal accreditation system for community housing providers in Victoria. Meanwhile, the Federation is encouraging and assisting member organisations to embark on the process of self evaluation against the National Community Housing Standards. There are several 'tools' which have been developed to assist organisations with this process (see below).
National Community Housing Standards Manual - limited number of hard copies also available from CHFV.
The tools for self evaluation against the National Community Housing Standards: Referral Agency questionnnaire
Other useful sites: National Accreditation Council Queensland Standards and Accreditation Unit St Georges Housing Association
CHFV Policy in Relation to Standards and Accreditation
Regulation and Performance StandardsDHS has prepared performance standards to represent the standard of operation required of Registered Housing Agencies while registered under Section 93 of the Housing Act 1983. Agencies are required to be compliant at all times with all standards, and the measures that apply to them, is mandatory. It is the responsibility of the agency to provide when requested supporting evidence to show that the standards have been met. Click here for Performance Standards and Guidance Notes (PDF)
Housing Provider FrameworkThe Housing Provider Framework consolidates the range of funding, administrative and contractual arrangements that exist in community housing programs including the Rooming House Program, Rental Housing Cooperatives and Disability housing initiatives such as the Group Housing Program. The Framework introduces a single Lease and Property Management Agreement. The principles of the Housing Provider Framework can be found at
Office of Housing - Longer Term Housing Program
Housing RegistrarHousing Registrar the term used collectively for the Registrar of Housing Agencies and its administrative arm. These two bodies were established following the introduction in January 2005 of a new Part VIII of the Victorian Housing Act 1983 [pdf 2mb]. The Housing Registrar carries out objectives of Part VIII, focusing on registration and regulation of rental housing agencies to serve the housing needs of low income Victorians http://www.housingregistrar.vic.gov.au/
Housing Legislation
National Affordable Housing AgreementThe National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA) is an agreement by the Council of Australian Governments that commenced on 1 January 2009, initiating a whole-of-government approach in tackling the problem of housing affordability. The NAHA provides $6.2 billion worth of housing assistance to low and middle income Australians in the first five years. The NAHA is supported by the National Partnership Agreements on: More information: http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/housing/progserv/affordability/affordablehousing/Pages/default.aspx
The NAHA replaces the 2003 Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement.
Government policy and fundingThe Victorian Government’s Housing Policy Directions and Funding
The Victorian Government has, for a number of years, been growing the community housing sector through the development of regulatory infrastructure and the provision of capital funding. The Government has nominated community housing as its preferred vehicle for the development of new social housing stock and, increasingly, the redevelopment of its public housing portfolio. In part, this strategic direction has been driven by the community housing sector’s capacity to deliver gearing (in addition to the funding received) and to capture Commonwealth Rental Assistance (CRA), which supports a viable rental income stream.
The Victorian Government has:
The Federal Government’s Housing Policy Directions and Funding
The Federal Housing Minister has articulated a housing reform agenda linked to the provision of funds under both National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA) and Federal Stimulus Package. The reforms to social housing will focus on a number of key objectives, such as to:
As well negotiating a new broader Commonwealth/State housing funding agreement (NAHA) to replace the previous (Commonwealth State Housing Agreement – CSHA), the Federal Government has committed to a number of funding initiatives including:
National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) – a 10 year private rental subsidy scheme targeted to construct 50,000 new houses by 2012 (of which Victoria could typically expect to secure on a per capita basis 12,500 units). As a shallow subsidy scheme, this has received some support from both the Victorian Government and institutional investors. However this is an opportunity with Victorian based community Housing Associations having been granted a solid share of new housing approvals in the first round of this scheme in Victoria and across Australia.
Federal Stimulus Package – this has provided approximately $1.5b for social housing in Victoria and is currently anticipated to fund in excess of 7,000 housing units, with half of the funding allocated to the community housing sector. As the Victorian community housing sector is structured to lever growth it is anticipated it shall deliver more than half of the houses, that is more then 3.750 units. Of those owned by the Director of Housing (DoH), a proportion is expected to be managed by the community housing sector and potentially transferred to community ownership.
The extent of the growth in this sector can be illustrated by a comparison with the growth achieved in the decade from 1996/07 to 2006/07. While the number of units under management is projected to grow from 8,000 units in 1996/96 to more than 27,000 in 2011-12, it is the growth in ownership and the associated required development capacity that is the most striking feature. In this area, the number of units owned by community housing agencies is anticipated to grow from 2,000 units in 1996/07 to more than 16,000 units by 2012 (with an associated asset value of more than $3.5b). legislation
|