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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-23 Daily Xml
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Social Housing

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (16:01): Social housing was not mentioned in yesterday's budget speech. Safe, affordable housing is something many take for granted, but all too often it is something a growing number of people have little likelihood of securing, particularly single-parent women with children and many older women facing unemployment or retirement on little or no super. The VIEW Club of Tea Tree Gully recently discussed a resolution at one of their meetings. It reads:

VIEW Clubs of Australia call on state and federal governments to increase funding and resources to provide for an increase in public and social housing; to meet the desperate shortage of accommodation to assist women and children in crisis and provide safe, affordable housing for the homeless and victims of domestic violence.

They go on to say homelessness has a dramatic impact on young children growing up and a safe and stable home is essential to provide the security women and children need to access education and achieve mental health. Having an address is also essential to gaining other services, like Centrelink benefits. Their arguments for the resolution, amongst other things, are:

there is a major shortfall of social and affordable housing, a key element of our national infrastructure, supporting the basic need of all people to have a safe, secure place to call home;

everyone has a right to live in a safe environment;

a move to a family home increases a family's confidence in their own ability and enables them to resume friendships and re-establish community networks;

the number of children and women living in cars or couch surfing has increased significantly in recent years; and

the incidence of domestic violence has also increased, and the lack of safe alternative housing for women and children contributes to this.

The VIEW members acknowledge there are some impeding factors. The income from rental payments received from public housing can be 'insufficient to support critical stock redevelopment, or cover the cost of maintaining existing stock'. Properties' age and management costs increase, so government and housing agencies face significant operating deficits—and we all know governments have limited funding.

I acknowledge that too, but strongly feel social housing must be a priority for governments, state and federal, and more needs to be done. If, in this current COVID crisis, we can find so many billions of dollars for infrastructure, then surely some of that money can be used for building homes. That still stimulates jobs but different sorts of jobs, as not everyone can be involved in major road construction.

Another group I come into contact with regularly is the National Council of Women. They celebrated their centenary in 2002 and have championed women's issues ever since. The results of their 2021 survey showed affordable public and social housing was the main issue of importance, scoring the highest rate of concern, with more than half the respondents listing it as their major concern. Their members know the necessity of having a home for shelter and to raise a family, and I can only hope they continue to lobby in every possible way to make sure this message is heard and acted upon.

SACOSS have also advocated on this particular issue for as many years as I can remember, and it is again front and centre of their concerns following the budget. They acknowledge the build-to-rent land tax discount initiative providing a 50 per cent rebate on land value for dwellings commenced after 1 July this year, and that will be in place up to the 2039-40 financial year.

In Florey, our electorate office sees perhaps the most issues raised around maintenance of Housing SA properties, followed by requests for assistance and letters of support to both get onto public housing lists and gain help in finding private rentals.

I would also like to mention today the work of the Adelaide Benevolent Society, which was founded in 1849 and became an incorporated association in 1968. Officially known as the Adelaide Benevolent and Strangers' Friend Society Incorporated, it is an independent and financially sustainable social enterprise with a long history of helping people get back on their feet, most notably through the depressed years of the late 1880s and 1890s and during the world wars of the early 20th century. I quote from their website:

Since renting and subsequently buying our first cottages in 1869, the Adelaide Benevolent Society has steadily grown its property portfolio to around 250 houses and units across Adelaide by reinvesting financial surpluses in more housing solutions. These properties are rented out at 25% below market rates to low-income individuals, families and new arrivals to the state.

Safe and secure housing and the ability for people to get back on their feet and participate in their community is something Adelaide Benevolent Society is committed to helping more people achieve.

I know this society has partnered with other groups and governments in the past and will continue to do so into the future.

I would also like to acknowledge the work of the NGOs in Adelaide and throughout the state who work with people in the cities and regional areas, helping them to gain or regain a foothold and re-establish or maintain their dignity and place in the community that stable accommodation gives. It is not only families and single parents who experience difficulty in finding a place to live; other people with disabilities, those with mental health issues, those reliant on low fixed incomes or those re-entering society after a custodial sentence all need help in finding not only a home but also employment.

These two factors have such an impact and without that hand up it becomes a day-to-day struggle for them to keep going. I urge the government to do more to put people first because, after all, we live in a community as well as an economy.

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