“Brisbane 2032 could set a new standard in legacy for social and economic opportunities,” according to housing and homelessness peak body Q Shelter.

A 46-recommendation report commissioned by Q Shelter was released today, detailing an economic and social legacy framework for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, focussed on leaving behind a world best in social inclusion legacy.

“Our report examines legacy benefits and while there are good examples of legacy in areas such as housing and economic participation, Brisbane could set a new international benchmark for how to ensure a legacy for all,’ said Q Shelter Executive Director Fiona Caniglia.

Developed with Urbis, the report was today handed to the Queensland Minister for Communities, Housing and the Digital Economy, Leeane Enoch, to assist the State Government in its detailed planning for legacy in areas such as housing, homelessness and economic participation. It has been delivered to all parliamentarians, SEQ Mayors and key stakeholders in governance of the Games.

The report warns that large scale events like the Games will cause displacement of existing populations without early interventions to prevent rising rental costs and ensure adequate housing supply.

“We are starting at a disadvantage because there is not enough housing supply to meet population needs,” said Ms Caniglia.

“We urgently need to ensure that early planning for legacy is focussed on the toughest, yet most important issues – to ensure Queenslanders have a home and ensure that residents are not displaced.

“We call for intensive additional resources to actively work with people experiencing homelessness now to ensure they can find and keep a home. We also call for scaling up housing supply now in addition to ensuring that there is a housing legacy from the Games’ village. It will not be enough to wait for the Games to see only a small amount of housing convert to social and affordable housing.”

The report calls for new, community wide measures such as the establishment of a housing trust to fund social and affordable housing well into the future. The report also details opportunities to see procurement processes target social enterprises and ensure employment and training opportunities for people who are marginalised in the employment market.

It includes a range of measures which ensure economic and social benefits of the Games also flow to vulnerable Queenslanders, including people experiencing homelessness, unemployment and disability.

“The importance of direct measures to guarantee economic opportunities and participation by First Nations’ peoples and businesses are critical,” Ms Caniglia said.

The report details case studies of previous Olympic and mass events, which enjoyed economic returns, yet saw negative impacts on vulnerable communities, such as mass rental evictions and re-locations.

Ms Caniglia said, “Historically, Olympic and Paralympic Games have promoted social and affordable housing legacy opportunities but have rarely delivered in these areas. If we start planning and acting now, Brisbane 2032 has an opportunity to be the most successful Games of all time, leaving behind a legacy for all.

“Careful and early planning is needed, with all levels of Government and other key partners, to make sure this is a Games of which we can all be proud and that delivers a social inclusion legacy that protects and benefits our most vulnerable.

“We must do everything to avoid crisis responses immediately before and during the Games. It will not be enough to temporarily move homeless people into insecure accommodation at the time. “

In summary, the comprehensive report details implementation opportunities, such as:

• clear social and affordable housing targets in key locations, including targets for the conversion of athletes’ village accommodation to social and affordable housing
• developing measures to assist people to exit homelessness before Brisbane 2032
• creating a lead agency for whole-of-housing system responses in Queensland with responsibility for coordinating all contributions across the levels of Government
• monitoring and responding to housing market changes leading up to, during and after Brisbane 2032, in impacted regions
• ensuring Brisbane 2032 achieves increased employment outcomes for people who are unemployed or under-employed
• reporting on progress against housing targets and adjust targets, if necessary, based on population planning and emergent needs
• establishing a housing trust to capture community-wide contributions to social and affordable housing in perpetuity

Q Shelter welcomes the opportunity to work with the Queensland State Government, the Commonwealth Government, the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympic Games organising committee, the Legacy Committee and other key partners, to further develop the report’s recommendations.

 

Media opportunities for comment by Q Shelter Executive Director, Fiona Caniglia.
Q Shelter Media Contact: Michelle Saftich – Phone 0407 074 645

 

 

 

Overview

Q Shelter’s State Budget submission always includes a range of measures across themes such as:

• Housing supply
• Planning system reforms
• Support including $20million for tenancy sustainment support programs
• Workforce capacity and capability
• Strengthening the voices and influence of people with lived experience of housing need and homelessness.

This year’s Q Shelter submission moved more decisively to articulate preventative upstream measures to ensure the overall health of the housing system as well as preventative support.  We effectively proposed ways of increasing the pipeline of housing while reducing the pipeline of people emerging into homelessness through intensive preventative measures that are both systemic and at the level of the individual or household.

Last year’s State Budget delivered a significant commitment to housing growth under three streams of activity. Despite this, the first 12 months of delivery has had some challenges and we analyse the housing measures this year along with a forward plan of how to influence increased spend in the future.

It is important to note that this year’s State Budget sees an expansion in support services. The budget is a big win for improved support measures across DFV, young people, community centres and mental health. The State Government is to be commended for ‘values in action’ with such considered measures which have important impacts for the prevention of homelessness by addressing underlying causes.

Housing supply

There is no new funding for social and affordable housing capital projects in this Queensland State Budget which doesn’t reflect either surging demand or community sentiment. Budget papers instead restate funding available under Queensland Housing Investment Growth Initiative.

The Budget does include $5million over two years to support the capacity of the community housing sector to participate in funding opportunities through the Housing Investment Fund.

The Budget papers include mention of $541.3 million in 2022-23 for government managed rental rebates which support 54,700 households reflecting only limited increases in the last five years.

Young people

Q Shelter’s policy proposal suggested specific measures and targeted capital funding to respond to the needs of young people experiencing homelessness. The Budget includes $29.8 million over four years and $10million per year ongoing to support initiatives that address youth homelessness. This reflects capacity to implement a youth homelessness policy and also funded measures that support the implementation of that policy. Q Shelter will continue to support Queensland Youth Housing Coalition’s role in leading the development of policy and service delivery models that positively address the needs of young people.

Q Shelter commends the increase in the age that young people exit care. Involvement in the child protection system is a significant indicator of the risk of homelessness. Increasing the age provides much greater support at a vulnerable life stage. There is still vital work to implement protocols and practices that prevent any young person exiting care being homeless even at the age of 21.

Domestic and Family Violence

Q Shelter is engaged in activities to improve the housing outcomes of women and children experiencing domestic and family violence. Enhanced funding for support and implementation of measures to address coercive control are welcome. Q Shelter will continue to work on capability-building activities across the community housing sector and private real estate industry to support responses to DFV that achieve tenancy sustainment.

Community centres

The budget includes new investment in community centres after historically low investment almost since their inception in Queensland.  Q Shelter commends the enhancement of core funds and the addition of more Community Connect workers. There is funding for new community centres including at Yarrabilba and in Rockhampton.

Many people searching for housing, visit their local community centre for help. They are an important point of access where people can also become involved and connect with others. This investment will strengthen local access to services and support.  Some of this investment is also to address social isolation which we know can have a significant impact on people experiencing homelessness as well as tenants in social and affordable housing. The total investment in this area of $125.6 million is very welcome.  The community and neighbourhood centre sector is to be congratulated for a sustained effort to achieve this investment after decades of effort and dialogue.

Improved mental health services

Increased funding for mental health infrastructure and service delivery is very welcome. Mental health is a key driver of vulnerability to homelessness and housing insecurity. Q Shelter has had input to the Inquiry into Mental Health proposing improved support services to ensure people with mental health challenges can find, get and keep housing. We will be working to provide input to how enhanced mental health support programs funded by the State in this budget, can include scope for the mental health workforce optimally supporting positive housing outcomes and the sustainment of tenancies.

Investing in trunk infrastructure

The Budget includes $200 million for the essential infrastructure needed for more new communities across South-East Queensland. A new Growth Acceleration Fund has been created to support the delivery of priority trunk infrastructure needed to develop new communities. Given the need for a pipeline of new homes, investment the acceleration of infrastructure enabling new residential communities to emerge is positive.

This investment is across two funds:

Catalyst Infrastructure Fund: The Catalyst Infrastructure Fund (CIF) of $150 million in equity funding infrastructure needed to develop new communities

Growth Acceleration Fund: a new $50 million fund to support the delivery of priority trunk infrastructure. $15million is allocated to Caboolture West.

Where to next for investment in housing supply

Q Shelter called for an increase in the Housing Investment Fund as well as capital funding for affordable housing projects that would enable CHPs to develop diversified portfolios and to also meet the needs of people upstream.

It is important to reflect that the case for additional funds for the HIF and for the development of affordable housing in this budget will be stronger if we can address implementation issues with QHIGI and seriously accelerate delivery.

We can all work together to address a number of challenges to speed delivery of QHIGI and open up new opportunities for investment by the State and other partners including by:

• Reviewing the procurement process to ensure optimal efficiency
• Finalising the Master Agreement and Capital Funding Agreement to ensure certainty for CHPs and optimal policy settings enabling them to grow
• Negotiating a policy framework that elevates the role of CHPs and provides optimal conditions for leveraging finance
• Progression of rent-setting policies to support the viability of CHPs, and which will improve the capacity to service debt for growth projects
• Clear policy and investment in affordable housing. This highlights policy debate about the relationship between social housing and affordable housing products, all of which help to meet the needs of people in housing stress or homelessness. We need to move beyond a binary proposition about diverse housing types and have policy commitments to both social and affordable housing to address diverse needs
• A Government leadership role on ‘whole of housing system’ interventions that galvanise intersecting elements with the goal of meeting total population demand for housing
• Interventions that help address supply chain and labour force constraints
• Resourcing and implementing an Industry Development Plan that addresses organisational and systemic challenges.
• Private rental system interventions that genuinely target empty properties and the short-term rental market to ease vacancy rates.

Rising costs including interest rates, bond rates and wage costs are all a material threat to the delivery of QHIGI. Any delays to implementation of projects will cause further rising costs and the genuine risk of reduced yield from the investment already committed.

The Budget does include $5million over two years to support the capacity of the community housing sector to participate in funding opportunities through the Housing Investment Fund. Q Shelter’s submission included significant proposed measures to support the strength and profile of the community housing sector.

Q Shelter is already engaged with Queensland Treasury, CHIA Qld and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Queensland to advance an Industry Development Plan which must not only invest in individual and organisational capability but drive solutions to the ongoing systemic barriers to growth. This will require resolution of an enabling policy framework that recognises the synergised role of social and affordable housing in meeting community needs.

We are looking to Homes Victoria to understand how the housing build there was underpinned by investment in industry development. We can’t expect to implement $1.9billion in growth projects and engage with a new Housing Investment Fund without attention to policies and strategic projects that address systemic barriers the plague the industry while also ensuring access to tools, resources, expertise and workforce development to ensure implementation succeeds.

The three peaks were already in meetings to progress an Industry Development Plan.  As NRSCH emerged in 2013-2014, there was also a significant amount of work on industry development led by the Department. It was the subject of considerable engagement with the Sector. It is time to triangulate the approach by Homes Victoria, the previous work in Queensland and current sector views to accelerate an Industry Development Plan that does some immediate things to support material progress while medium and longer-term approaches are articulated, staged and resourced.

As budget preparations accelerate from October 2022, our challenge as peaks and as a sector is to influence a more enabling policy framework while also accelerating growth projects to demonstrate the capacity is there to do more.

The scale of the crisis is immense which is why Q Shelter’s policy submission articulates an intersecting range of measures. Some would make a considerable difference to supply without additional capital funding. For the sake of households who need solutions now, it is essential to revisit all possibilities with an open sense of inquiry.

On the positive side, enhanced support delivered through community centres, child protection systems, youth homelessness sector, the DFV sector and the mental health sector will make a significant difference.  Q Shelter will be working across these systems to ensure programs of support are housing literate and geared to help as many people upstream sustain a tenancy. Nearly 60% of all services that refer into the Service Integration Initiative come from outside of the community housing and specialist homelessness system. Greater support and enablement of those services to respond to housing needs and work within a tenancy sustainment framework can make a significant difference to reducing the pipeline of people who are edging towards homelessness.

Fiona Caniglia

Executive Director

 

Q Shelter commends local governments and private sector stakeholders who are stepping up to the challenge of ensuring housing affordability and availability so that every Queenslander has a home.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner took an important step by incentivising the return of short-term holiday rentals to the long-term private rental market in Brisbane City Council’s recent budget. Other local governments have also signaled that empty homes need to be identified and returned to the market.

“At a time when people are desperately seeking a home, we need to reach out to everyone who owns multiple properties to consider how they can make a difference,” says Q Shelter’s Executive Director Fiona Caniglia.

Ahead of the Queensland State Budget, it is important to acknowledge the emergence of more and more community leaders prepared to take action. “Private sector stakeholders talking about ‘build-to-rent’ models at scale are also raising an important set of opportunities for Queensland,” she said.

Ms Caniglia says, “Last year’s State Budget introduced some important measures for social and affordable housing, including the establishment of the Housing Investment Fund, and strong commitments to outcomes in the Housing and Homelessness Action Plan.”

Q Shelter can see a vital role for the Queensland State Government in coordinating a coalition of willing partners, each working with their own constituency to achieve genuine change and accelerated growth in housing supply. Ms Caniglia says, “As opportunities flow from initiatives promised by the Federal Government, we need Queensland leaders to be working in optimal ways across all sectors to leverage funding and other system changes.

“The problem is so challenging we need to remove every obstacle to success. We need all sectors working on solutions including immediate measures to return more properties to the private market, increased spending on social and affordable housing, as well as system change to guarantee a planning system that can deliver enough housing to meet population demand.

“Community housing providers can also play an expanded role. It is time to consider a range of measures to see these not-for-profit providers operating at scale. They need real opportunities to build and manage social and affordable homes using a combination of Government funding, a streamlined planning system, reduced costs for insurance and rates as well as debt financing for growth projects.

“Of course, more funding is needed for social and affordable housing products.  Any investment by Government in social and affordable homes will have more impact if we also ensure systemic changes to achieve enough housing supply to meet all projected population demands.

“There is a great opportunity for the State to convene leaders to address this crisis as no one measure is enough. We need to call people to the table to solve some immediate challenges while we also work together for medium and longer-term change.”

More housing supply can only be achieved through a range of necessary solutions which is what Q Shelter’s annual submission calls for.

Read the full submission here.

Key measures include:

• Urgent planning system reforms such as inclusionary zoning
• A uniform and enabling approach to the use of secondary dwellings
• Regional housing targets to meet population demand
• A greater role for community housing providers who can build at a lower cost and who are primed to play a bigger role by attracting debt finance through institutions such as NHFIC which effectively leverages State funding to deliver more social and affordable housing
• The introduction of necessary rental reforms to improve security of tenure for the growing number of people who will rent for life
• Specific funding to support the community housing sector to provide affordable housing offered at a discount to market rent
• Early and urgent progress on guaranteeing a social and affordable housing legacy from the Olympics and Para-Olympics

 

Q Shelter is the peak body for the housing and homelessness sector in Queensland.

For more on Q Shelter head to: www.qshelter.asn.au

ENDS

Q Shelter Media Contact: Michelle Saftich: 0407 074 645.

Queensland’s housing crisis has drawn unprecedented levels of concern from across the community. The situation is urgent and needs to be treated similarly to a significant natural disaster, with joined up responses involving Government, the not-for-profit sector and private sector.

Ahead of the Queensland State Budget, it is important to acknowledge the $2.9billion program geared to investment in social housing announced last year.

Q Shelter Executive Director Fiona Caniglia says, “Last year’s State Budget introduced some important measures for social and affordable housing, including the establishment of the Housing Investment Fund, and strong commitments to outcomes in the Housing and Homelessness Action Plan.

“Of course more funding is needed for social and affordable housing products.  However important systemic changes are also needed to ensure enough housing supply to meet all projected population demands.

‘The register of need for social housing has grown and supply of social housing does not meet demand. Many people who need housing now are not eligible for social housing and we need to guarantee a healthy housing system so those people are not forced into a deepening personal crisis where social housing is the only option.

“There is a great opportunity for the State to convene leaders to address this crisis as no one measure is enough. We need to call people to the table to solve some immediate challenges while we also work together for medium and longer-term change.”

More housing supply can only be achieved through a range of necessary solutions which is what Q Shelter’s annual submission calls for.

Read the full submission here.

Key measures include:

• Urgent planning system reforms such as inclusionary zoning
• A uniform and enabling approach to the use of secondary dwellings
• Regional housing targets to meet population demand
• A greater role for community housing providers who can build at a lower cost and who are primed to play a bigger role by attracting debt finance through institutions such as NHFIC which effectively leverages State funding to deliver more social and affordable housing
• The introduction of necessary rental reforms to improve security of tenure for the growing number of people who will rent for life
• Specific funding to support the community housing sector to provide affordable housing offered at a discount to market rent
• Early and urgent progress on guaranteeing a social and affordable housing legacy from the Olympics and Para-Olympics

Q Shelter encourages the Queensland Government to convene community leaders to respond to this crisis. “Everyone is concerned and would be willing to come together to work on solutions,” says Ms Caniglia.

She said: “Q Shelter has taken more calls than ever from people desperately seeking a home. We know the service system is under more pressure than ever. Sector leaders describe persistent efforts to find emergency options including temporary hotels and motels for struggling families without success.

“We need to be focussed on removing every obstacle to success in delivering more housing supply across every point on the housing spectrum.”

Q Shelter is the peak body for the housing and homelessness sector in Queensland.

For more on Q Shelter head to: www.qshelter.asn.au

ENDS

Media inquiries to Q Shelter Media Manager, Michelle Saftich. Phone 0407 074 645

22 May 2022 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

As Federal Election results unfold there are likely and welcome changes to the national approach to housing in Australia.

Executive Director Fiona Caniglia says, “Q Shelter has called for a nationally coordinated approach to housing supply and affordability. We will be working hard with National Shelter to ensure the proposed National Housing Supply and Affordability Council delivers an integrated and coordinated approach to supply that meets population demand.

“It will also be vital to ensure investment in social and affordable housing products as well as targeted strategies for specific population groups that are vulnerable.”

Community housing providers are front and centre to future success. “The Queensland community housing sector delivers high quality housing solutions across the whole State.  Federal investment can be leveraged to achieve significant growth through providers who are already developing growth plans and partnering the State to grow housing supply under programs funded in the last State Budget,” says Ms Caniglia.

This new policy landscape comes at a time when the housing crisis is impacting more and more Queenslanders. “Q Shelter has taken more calls than ever from people desperately seeking a home. We know the service system is under more pressure than ever. Sector leaders describe persistent efforts to find emergency options including temporary hotels and motels for struggling families without success.” Anglicare’s Rental Affordability Snapshot shows almost zero affordable housing options for single people on minimum wages or people relying on the Disability Support Pension, and REIQ posts record-low vacancy rates. National Government commitment to leadership on housing supply has never been more important.

“We are seeing a sector and workforce under more pressure than ever before. We need to be focussed on removing every obstacle to success in delivering more housing supply across every point on the housing spectrum,” says Ms Caniglia.

Q Shelter has made a budget submission to the State Government, flagging a range of solutions which could be considered in the next State Budget, including a call for better planning, a strong community housing sector, rental reforms and supports for vulnerable groups. Read the submission here

Regional areas such as South Burnett and Townsville are also gearing up to identify regional actions to address the crisis. Q Shelter is working with more and more regions focussed on ensuring that investment from all levels of Government, private sector partnerships and an optimal role for the community housing sector all come together to ensure regionally sensitive solutions. “Regional networks are working harder than ever in partnership with Q Shelter to build local plans to address housing need”.

 

ENDS

Media opportunities for comment by Q Shelter Executive Director, Fiona Caniglia.
Q Shelter Media Contact: Michelle Saftich – Phone 3831 5103