Aboriginal Housing

167 Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (24 September 2015). In relation to Budget Paper 4, Volume 1, page 117, I note that three additional employment related accommodation properties for people moving from remote Aboriginal communities have been acquired—

1. How much has been spent on this acquisition, where are they located and who can access them?

2. How many employment related properties exist in Housing SA?

3. How many of these are in remote Aboriginal communities?

4. Can the property be reverted back for standard Housing SA use?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers): I have been advised:

1. Three Employment Related Accommodation (ERA) properties were cited in relation to Budget Paper 4, Volume 1, page 117. After budget papers were prepared, settlement on an additional property occurred, also falling within the 2014-15 period. The four properties are located in Clovelly Park (two), Seacombe Gardens (one), and in Ceduna (one). Expenditure on these four properties was $1.74 million.

A further six dwellings in Largs North (two), Northfield (two), Angle Park (one) and Ceduna (one), along with five land parcels in Whyalla, were included in the 2014-15 acquisition schedule. They were purchased late in the financial year and settled early in the 2015-16 period. Three of the properties and the five land parcels have since reached settlement with an expenditure of $1.32 million for the dwellings and $337,000 for the land.

To be eligible for the ERA program, applicants must be of Aboriginal descent, from a remote community in South Australia (or cross borders), be engaged in, or ready to take up, further education, training and employment opportunities, and have an independent income.

2. Including the newly acquired properties, Housing SA has 36 ERA houses spread across Adelaide (17), Ceduna (four), Port Augusta (seven), Roxby Downs (three) and Umuwa (five). The program also has a 24-bed short-stay facility that accompanies the APY Lands Trade Training Centre, also located in Umuwa.

The five land parcels recently purchased in Whyalla will deliver five dwellings for ERA, with construction due to be completed by June 2016.

3. ERA properties are not located in remote Aboriginal communities. They are purchased to accommodate Aboriginal people who have relocated from a remote setting to engage in education, training and employment activities.

4. Properties are purchased using funding through the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing and are exclusively intended for supporting the outcomes of the ERA program. They are not intended to be reverted back to mainstream social housing.

Most of the properties are managed by non-government providers under head-lease arrangements; however, the program is flexible enough that if a property was deemed difficult to let, or was no longer suitable for the program, it could be sold or transferred back to social housing stock provided it was replaced with a suitable asset for ERA purposes.