COMPASS Housing has proposed a radical solution that would see Newcastle as a demonstration site for improving social housing for tenants and communities in NSW.
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In our submission to the NSW government’s social housing reform discussion paper, we are calling for the creation of a Newcastle Autonomous Social Housing Region as part of a new, “third wave” approach to managing social housing in this state and beyond.
Innovative action is urgently required to tackle the significant challenges that confront social housing. Changing demographics, a10per cent reduction in social housing stock over 10 years, pressures on government funding and changes in policy make the same old response redundant.
There are 60,000 people on the waiting list for public housing in NSW. We need a new approach to overcome a lack of economic and social participation for social housing tenants, lengthening tenure, a burgeoning backlog of necessary maintenance, tolerance of anti-social behaviour and the stigmatisation of public housing.
The government this week proposed tough new measures to crack down on the relatively small, but damaging, criminal activities occurring in social housing. We welcome those measures but they are not a total solution.
The Newcastle Autonomous Social Housing Region would involve the transfer of the management of the 4000 public housing dwellings within the city of Newcastle to Compass. The region would be used to develop, deploy and refine new approaches to asset and social management. It can be resourced by $11million of Commonwealth Rental Assistance and savings from social housing management rationalisation.
Compass would then work with others in the region to develop and link multiple pathways that address tenant education and employment, transition to successful adulthood, access to the private property market, service development and co-ordination, social housing asset renewal and the better financing of social housing.
In the “first wave”, social housing was for workers and returning soldiers. From the 1980s a “second wave” focused social housing on those in most need. In the “third wave”, social housing needs to be seen within a continuum of housing assistance strategies that consider all aspects of tenants’ lives, their pathways to social and economic participation, and the communities in which they live.
Social housing is used by a wide range of people with different needs so there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The vast majority of social housing tenants are decent people who for all sorts of reasons are struggling to put a roof over their heads. Many want to get out of social housing. Different but consistent approaches to different groups are required to support people to contribute to their own advancement and the betterment of their community.
We also need to build and manage properties better. As well as looking at the capacity of social housing properties to facilitate people’s social and economic participation, we need to see how that asset can be valued and used to create more social and affordable housing .
Newcastle is the perfect place to evaluate a new approach. In the 30 years Compass has been operating, we have grown from three part-time staff in one Newcastle office to Australia’s largest community housing provider because we have always taken an innovative, business-like but tenant-focused approach.
The Hunter has highly skilled agencies that know how to work together to get a job done.
In the Newcastle autonomous region we can bring the third wave of social housing to life. We’ll build on existing programs such as Grow a Star and community hubs. We’re planning a Newcastle Foyer Project for homeless young people to combine accommodation with employment, education and training support in conjunction with Hunter TAFE NSW, Life Without Barriers, Hunter Youth 2020, and Rotary Charlestown.
We’re enhancing our existing social interventions with the use of the “Deep Place” approach developed in the UK to tackle poverty, poor health and low educational attainment in marginalised communities.
Social housing impacts and requires the attention of the whole community; not just government, welfare agencies and tenants.
I’d love to see housing become an issue for voters and politicians in the upcoming NSW election. Ask local candidates about their plans.