CHFV Co-operative Housing Sub-Committee

This sub committee brings together workers and tenant members from the two co-operative housing programs that operate in Victoria. These are the Rental Housing Co-operative program (RHC) and the Common Equity Housing Co-operative program (CERC).

The Co-operative Housing Sub Committee provides an opportunity for housing co-ops to share information, experience and resources. It also develops materials and training to assist workers and committee members in the running of their co-operatives.

The Housing Co-operative Sub Committee:

• Creates a forum for the sharing of information resources and an opportunity for discussion of issues of interest to co-operative housing providers.
• Represents the collective view of Co-operative Housing members.
• Provides CHFV members and the CHFV Management Committee with information and insights in regard to the co-operative housing sector.
• Contributes to CHFV policy development and advocacy functions as they relate to provision of co-operative housing.
• Acts as a consultative mechanism for CHFV on co-operative housing issues.
• Monitors current government policy direction on co-operative housing provision.
• Negotiates with the Office of Housing on operational and policy issues.
• Collects data for CHFV about co-operative housing.
• Develops education and training resources for co-operative housing providers.

Membership

The Co-operative Housing sub-Committee is open to members of the Federation. However, only Full Members are entitled to vote and each Full Member organisation is entitled to one vote. An elected convenor chairs the meetings and ensures that all issues raised are followed up.

Current Activities  

Guidelines on disputes in co-op housing *NEW*

The South Australian Office of Community Housing has put out some guidelines on disputes in co-op housing. These can be accessed:

http://www.communityhousing.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=405

External Appeals body for the co-operative sector

After some time, the final report for the External Appeals body for housing co-operatives has been released. For more information, please go to the Projects and Research page.

Housing Legislation

The most significant issue for the sub-committee at present is the impact of the new Housing Act on co-operative housing. The Act significantly changes the contractual arrangements that rental housing co-ops currently have with the Office of Housing and places expectations on co-ops to rethink the how they operate.

Property Upgrades

One of the ongoing challenges facing the sub-committee is to ensure that there is sufficient funding from the Office of Housing to carry out the required major maintenance work on co-op properties.  

Meetings  

Housing Co-op Sub Committee meetings are on:

Meetings for 2008 will be held from 10:30 am -1:00 pm, on the 1st Wednesday of each month. Meetings are usually held in the main board room of the CHFV offices (Level 5, 128 Exhibition Street, Melbourne).

Dates for 2008

• 6 February
• 5 March
• 2 April
• 7 May
• 4 June
• 2 July
• 6 August
• 3 September
• 1 October
• 5 November
• 3 December

Convenors for the Co-operative housing sub-committee rotate from the RHC program to the CERC program.

No official RHC convenor has been nominated at this stage.

Contact for further information   

Maggie Laurie at CHFV, 9654 6077 or chfv@chfv.org.au.