The recent Housing and Homelessness Policy announcement by the ACT Greens ahead of the October ACT election has sparked some hope of vital additional support for Canberra’s community housing providers (CHPs), Andrew Rowe, the CEO of one of Canberra’s largest CHPs, Havelock Housing Association, said today.

The ACT Greens made the announcement yesterday promising the territory’s biggest ever investment in affordable housing.

“The announcement was a positive recognition from the ACT Greens of the rapidly growing need for more social housing in Canberra,” Mr Rowe said.

“No politician should be comfortable with the fact that there are nearly 2,500 Canberran families and individuals on the public housing waiting list who will wait for anywhere from 6 months to 3 years for a placement, and many more in our community are struggling to pay high market rents and are at risk of losing their home.”

Recent research from AHURI has put Canberra’s current level of social housing shortfall at 8,500 homes.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is tipped to only make things worse with high unemployment and increased homelessness,” Mr Rowe said.

“It’s undeniable that additional support and funding is required to chip away at these staggering figures and ensure Canberra’s housing outcomes don’t get worse.

“Boosting Canberra’s social housing stock is essential to a post-pandemic economic strategy not only to support jobs and provide key infrastructure, but to also show compassion in this time of local and national need.

“Havelock Housing has been consistently advocating for more genuine support from the current ACT Government so we hope the other major parties will follow suit with similar announcements.”

 

Media enquiries:
Sharon Akinyi, Media and Communications Manager
02 6103 0801 | 0434 583 846 | sharona@havelock.asn.au