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September 2009
The White Paper on Homelessness, The Road Home, included a Commonwealth Government commitment to ‘implement new legislation to ensure people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness receive quality services and adequate support to meet their needs'. ACOSS welcomes the announcement of this Inquiry to progress this White Paper commitment.
September 2009
ACOSS strongly supported the two economic stimulus packages, the first of which was introduced a year ago. This inquiry is timely as it provides an opportunity to review these initiatives, and to make adjustments where necessary.
The evidence indicates that the package prevented a steeper and more prolonged slowdown in growth and saved jobs.
October 2008
ACOSS supports the National Rental Affordability Scheme, which is designed to stimulate private investment in affordable rental housing. We argue the Scheme is appropriately targeted at low and moderate income households but that the NRAS must be complemented by additional incentives and forms of assistance to encourage providers to rent dwellings to very low income and high needs households.
September 2008
ACOSS' submission in response to the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) Technical Paper welcomes the Scheme and highlights a number of issues related to access to NRAS dwellings by those on low incomes. The submission includes a discussion of rental stress, tenant eligibility, the allocation of incentives, the setting of rent levels and the regulation of tenancy managers. It highlights the need to ensure that the Scheme enables access by low income and disadvantaged households to safe, secure, appropriate and affordable housing while protecting the viability of community housing providers.
June 2008
ACOSS's submission to the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs called for an improved national response to homelessness which addresses the structural causes of homelessness (including the lack of affordable housing), invests in prevention and early intervention, strengthens the mainstream service response and enhances the crisis accommodation service system. In this submission we outline five key elements of a new national approach: an increase in the stock of public, community and other affordable housing, A National Strategy with goals and targets, a new National Affordable Housing Agreement which includes housing and homelessness programs, the enhancement of effective prevention and early intervention programs and the enhancement of homelessness support services to meet existing need, provide longer term and post-crisis support and to increase case management and service brokering capacity.
March 2008
ACOSS's submission to the Senate Inquiry into Housing Affordability addresses some of the Inquiry's Terms of Reference, being to examine and report on the barriers to home ownership in Australia , while also raising some broader structural issues affecting housing affordability beyond home purchase. In particular, the submission emphasises that the majority of households in housing stress are low income renters in the private rental market. ACOSS argues that due to the complex and interdependent nature of current housing pressures, effective responses to the challenge of affordability must include all sections of the housing market, employ a broad range of policy levers and involve both long and short term solutions.
June 2004
The survey examines key changes in the operating environment of Housing Services, major issues of concern to these organisations, and how they are responding. Indirectly, the survey also provide a sense of how Australian families are faring when accessing or attempting to access Housing Services.
ACOSS Info paper 357. Includes: Community Services sector. Housing services. The pressures upon delivery of service. Agency income, costs and insurance. Centrelink. Federal government policy changes effect upon housing service agencies.
September 2003
ACOSS Info paper 348. Published by ACOSS, 2003.
Includes: Rent Assistance. Housing affordability. Housing stress. Rent disparities. Affordable locations. Commonwealth State Housing Agreement (CHSA). Unemployment/employment. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). Community service providers
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