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Community Housing information bulletin

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Community Housing information bulletin - February 2009

Update on national housing initiatives

National Affordable Housing Agreement

The National Affordable Housing Agreement, which came into effect on 1 January 2009, is a significant package for investment in housing that provides a framework for governments to work together to improve housing affordability, reduce homelessness and reduce Indigenous housing disadvantage. Announced by the Council of Australian Governments late last year, the agreement is complemented by three National Partnerships to address homelessness, social housing and remote Indigenous housing.

As part of the new agreement, governments have committed to undertake reforms in the housing sector, including:

improving integration between the homelessness service system and mainstream services
reducing concentrations of disadvantage that exist in some social housing estates
improving access by Indigenous people to mainstream housing, including home ownership
enhancing the capacity and growth of the not-for-profit housing sector, and
planning reforms for greater efficiency in the supply of housing.

The agreement identifies the roles and responsibilities for each level of government and establishes a performance framework against which the key outcomes of the agreement will be measured.

Update on the National Rental Affordability Scheme

The National Affordable Housing Agreement is an Australian Government initiative to stimulate the supply of up to 50,000 new affordable rental dwellings across the country. The call for round two of applications to be submitted by developers closes on Friday 27 March 2009.

Housing Affordability Fund projects announced

The Australian Government’s Housing Affordability Fund will invest up to $512 million over five years to lower the cost of building new homes. The tender calling for applications closed on Wednesday 15 October 2008. The Australian Government has announced which projects will be asked to provide more information prior to a final decision being made.

Australian Government's White Paper on Homelessness released

On 29 November 2008, the Council of Australian Governments proposed a new approach to responding to homelessness in Australia through its White Paper on Homelessness. Please refer to the link for more information.

A Place To Call Home

A Place to Call Home is a joint initiative by the Australian, State and Territory Governments to build 600 new homes for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The Queensland and Australian Governments are each investing $35.7 million in this program over five years.