Ministerial Statement

Housing, Homelessness and Support Strategy

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:16): On Sunday, the Premier and I were proud to release the Marshall Liberal government's new Housing, Homelessness and Support Strategy, titled Our Housing Future 2020-30. This strategy is a once-in-a-generation plan to modernise and reform our state's housing system to meet the future needs and aspirations of South Australians.

At its centre, the strategy will help more South Australians into home ownership, grow jobs and boost the economy, with a plan to deliver more than 20,000 affordable housing outcomes over the next decade. Backed by a $550 million government investment, major initiatives in the plan include:

$400 million towards delivering 1,000 new affordable homes by 2025 for low and moderate income earners, with all profit generated from the development activity to be injected back into Housing SA;

an additional $75 million over ten years to continue this government's commitment to addressing the public housing maintenance backlog;

a $54 million neighbourhood renewal program over five years delivering new social, affordable and open market homes;

$20 million from 2020-21 over 10 years for a homelessness prevention fund to trial new approaches to reduce the need for crisis accommodation;

continuing to support home ownership through 10,000 HomeStart Finance loans targeted to low and moderate income households and committing an additional $5 million over five years to the Starter Loan initiative, which will provide for 500 new loans; and

delivering up to 1,000 employment and training outcomes to help social housing tenants into a job.

We know that far too many South Australians are experiencing rental stress, as well as unstable and unsuitable housing conditions. We know that we need to create clearer housing pathways for people to exit from paying 'dead money' through renting properties in the private and social housing systems, which will free up social housing for those who need it most. We also know that reorienting our support systems will help prevent people falling into homelessness.

By delivering more affordable housing, clearer pathways to independent housing solutions, more sustainable social housing, and investment into homelessness prevention, Our Housing Future creates the change needed to have sustained and meaningful impact. The plan is about giving aspiring homebuyers a foot in the door, living the great Australian dream of owning a home, and also ensuring that our most vulnerable citizens achieve improved social and economic outcomes.

I have previously reported to the parliament on our state's broken housing system. Last year, I reported to parliament, through the tabling of the triennial review, that the South Australian Housing Trust is at risk of being unable to provide appropriate housing to low income households into the future. I also outlined the Marshall government's vision: that we need all parts of the housing system working together if we want to provide South Australians with long-term housing stability. Our Housing Future is our roadmap to achieve this.

Establishing a framework to achieve such an ambitious vision is not done in isolation. Throughout the consultation for this new strategy, over 1,000 non-government organisations, businesses, representative bodies and, most importantly, communities, families and individuals with lived experience shared their voices, and we heard a loud call for change.

Reform has begun and the new Office of Homelessness Sector Integration is leading the transformation of what has been a fragmented and siloed system. These are shared solutions and the strategy creates the conditions to support the partnerships, pilots to try new solutions and a $550 million government investment to kickstart the work. The opportunities are now before us. Our partners are ready for change. Our customers and clients deserve it and this government is ready to deliver it.