Australia’s community housing sectors can be the solution to the country’s current rental crisis, says CentaCare Housing Incorporated housing manager Geoff Wallace.
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Mr Wallace said Ballarat’s housing sector is currently under extreme pressure in terms of demand, with low income earners and single-parent families also suffering from ‘housing stress’.
A recent report into housing affordability from the National Shelter establishes that households paying more than 30 per cent of income in rent are under housing stress.
Mr Wallace defines Ballarat’s current housing shortage as a “wicked” problem, caused by a range of factors, but in its simplicity, can be boiled down to a “houselessness issue”.
“That’s at the core of it,” he said.
“We’re about 250,000 dwellings short in the country for the population we have, year in, year out and it’s as simple as supply and demand.”
Mr Wallace said CentaCare has 58 dwellings around the Ballarat area but remains under severe pressure from weight of numbers.
“We have 58 dwellings around Ballarat, including a rooming house in Webster Street – we have 15 people there,” Mr Wallace said.
“(But) I have a wait list that would be two years long, it’s really that bad.”
“The public housing sector in Victoria is restructuring and the government is trying to address the needs. But like with anything, it’s a slow moving process.”
Mr Wallace said a lack of support at state and federal government level has had severe ramifications for the future development of projects, including the “brilliant” National Rental Affordability Scheme.
“The NRAS properties that we developed took 25 per cent off the top of market rent. That means $400 rent turns into $300, which is a big difference,” he said.
“NRAS was around for five years and when it was first set up, people looked at it and said it was almost too good to be true, because from the developer’s perspective there’s 10 years to do it and it gives affordable tenancy.
“It was a brilliant scheme.”
Mr Wallace said he believes that funding will return to the community housing sector, with those aligned with welfare agencies the best poised to make a difference.
“I see the governments, state and federal, focusing their attention on the housing sector, I really do. It will happen eventually – I believe it will start being backed.
“Most of us have an alignment with a welfare company and community housing that is aligned with social welfare has been recognised as the way forward.
“The foundation to everything is housing – the foundation to life is housing.”
