How do charities and not for profits best respond to detractors?

Sonya Parsons, a partner at Thomson Geer, suggests three steps for charities and not for profits to consider when dealing with negative commentary about their organisation or its work.

Many charities want to win over hearts and minds to their cause. So what do you do when faced with a very public detractor that looks like undoing all your hard work?

These days, that “one size fits all” approach to adverse public commentary about an organisation does not work anymore.

Primarily because of social media.

It has never been more important to invest in women’s economic security

Under the theme, Building Women’s Economic Security, the campaign – A Pink Hi-Vis Recovery – will draw attention to the precarious housing situation faced by many women in NSW and advocate for tangible policy changes that will improve lives across the state and aid NSW’s economic recovery.

Social housing can play a key role in NSW’s recovery, driving economic growth and jobs creation across the state; at the same time as building women’s economic security. This year Joanna Quilty, NCOSS CEO and Brad Webb, Castle CEO are pleased to Co-Chair the NSW Anti-Poverty Week (APW) Steering Group. The Steering Group is made up of organisations that are connected to their community and committed to ending poverty.

• Country Women’s Association
• Older Women’s Network
• Mission Australia
• PCYC
• LGNSW
• Financial Counsellors Association of NSW
• St Vincent de Paul
• NSW Council of Social Service

Together with Domestic Violence NSW, Homelessness NSW and Community Housing Industry Association NSW, NCOSS has commissioned a new report from Equity Economics that sets out the evidence supporting our campaign and highlighting the urgent need to invest in women’s economic security by building more social housing.

Read the report via this link: Rebuilding for Women’s Economic Security – Investing in Social Housing in NSW

Housing pathways for young people

Everyone needs a place to call home, but many young people in our communities face challenges accessing housing.

Under the Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2021-2025 (PDF, 3466.73 KB), the Dept of Housing will help vulnerable young people to achieve social and economic independence through an integrated framework of housing with support.

The framework will help to facilitate multi-agency service responses and involve young people and specialist support services in developing future responses.

An Independent Review of the 2019 ‘First Home Buyers’ Scheme finds it has hurt Prospective Home Owners!

The housing market is being driven by owner-occupiers and investors are largely absent. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

A scheme promoted by Scott Morrison at the 2019 election to help first home buyers into the property market has actually hurt prospective property owners and likely put upward pressure on prices, an independent review has found.

The statutory review of the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, released on Thursday, found the first home loan deposit scheme had also assisted potential buyers who were capable of getting into the market more than those who were genuinely struggling to get a home.

The review, headed by Flagstaff Partners senior adviser Chris Leptos, said the first home loan scheme was part of a scope of measures aimed at reducing housing affordability pressures across the country.

It found the scheme had most likely accelerated into the market people who would have been able to buy without support within one or two years.

But it had “supported relatively few people” who would have otherwise not been able to buy a home.

While the scheme had helped the 19,000 people who had accessed it in its first 18 months of operation, it had most likely hurt those unable to access it and put upward pressure on overall prices.

Community Sector Climate Declaration

Rapidly worsening climate change is hurting our communities.

The Community Housing sector has been on the frontline of helping communities respond to the impacts of more intense and frequent bushfires, drought, floods, storms, and heatwaves.

This sector has seen firsthand the increasing devastation of climate change impacts on communities, to their mental and physical health, homes, jobs, the general quality of life and sadly the loss of life.

People experiencing financial or social disadvantage are impacted by climate change first, worse, and longest because they have access to fewer resources to cope, adapt and recover.

It is already exposing them to greater levels of harm and disadvantage and is posing a particular threat to First Nations communities and to the future of our young people.

It is clear that climate change impacts and a slow, poorly managed transition to zero emissions are a major threat to ending poverty and inequality, and our sector’s ability to support our communities.

Without rapid, fair and inclusive action on climate change, these threats will continue to worsen.

One hundred community sector organsiations from around Australia sign up for this historical declaration. You can read the declaration from this article.

A Short Survey: What are payments like for people with lived experience collaborating with services today?

The Consumer Participation Practice Network (CPPN) is a group of practitioners from Victorian-based services encompassing health, mental health, homelessness, family violence, youth, alcohol and other drugs, legal and justice services, and peak bodies including the Council to Homeless Persons and Youth Affairs Council (YACVIC).

CPPN are asking …
What are payments like for people with lived experience collaborating with services today?

The CPPN Lived Experience payment survey has had more than 90 responses in the 3 weeks it’s been open — and this is just the beginning.

It’s not too late to have your say.

This is what is emerging from the survey so far:

1. People want choice around payment and they know what works for them
2. People are anxious about how payments affect them
3. People with lived experience face unique risks and barriers to participating

People want choice around payment and they know what works for them

Victoria’s new $500m Homebuyer Fund will see the government own part of up to 3,000 homes

Victoria is launching a $500 million fund to get homebuyers into the market, in exchange for a share in the property.

Key points:
– Most recipients of the Victorian Homebuyers Fund will need to have a 5 per cent deposit, with the government chipping in up to 25 per cent on top of that
– The government will keep that stake in the home until the property is sold or the owner buys out its share

However, the opposition has accused the government of giving with one hand and taking away with the other because of hikes in stamp duty and land tax

Treasurer Tim Pallas said the Victorian Homebuyers Fund (VHF) is expected to help about 3,000 residents buy a home.

The fund is an expansion of the $50 million HomesVic Shared Equity Initiative, which the government said helped more than 330 households into the market.

Housing Legislation Amendment Bill 2021

The Housing Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 has been introduced in the Queensland Parliament to progress Stage 1 of Queensland’s rental law reform.

The first stage reforms aim to strike the right balance between renters and rental property owner interests for all parties to have:

– more certainty about their tenancy arrangements by encouraging greater transparency and accountability about intentions and decision making
– confidence their rental property is safe, secure and functional by prescribing Minimum Housing Standards
– certainty about how renters experiencing domestic and family violence can manage their tenancy arrangements to improve their safety without bearing the costs of the violence used against them
– frameworks to support negotiations about renting with pets and encourage more pet-friendly rental accommodation in Queensland.

The proposed changes to Queensland’s rental laws have been informed by community consultation with over 150,000 responses received from consultation processes held in 2018 and 2019.

The COVID-19 response for residential tenancies also tested key elements of Stage 1 reform options in 2020 and 2021.

Improving real life impacts for liveable and accessible higher density homes

Australia’s Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc) develops projects informed by industry partner needs, secures national funding, project manages the collaborative research and oversees research into practice initiatives. Core Members of SBEnrc include BGC Australia, Government of Western Australia, Queensland Government, Curtin University, Griffith University and RMIT University.
This research would not have been possible without the valuable support of our core industry, government and research partners.

The research explores the broader thinking is needed for the liveability and accessibility of our urban housing precincts to be more successful in terms of providing safe and fulfilling environments, especially for the most vulnerable in our community.
A whole-system thinking approach is essential to provide more resilient environments in the event of currently unforeseen disruptions.

Associate Professor Sacha Reid and her team have finalised a Liveability Framework for Medium to High-density Social and Affordable Housing, to be used to develop project and precinct-based, value-focused standards and targets to drive adoption of better outcomes and promote community acceptance of delivering whole-of-life solutions.

Some of the features with real-life impacts highlighted from two case studies undertaken to test the framework include:
• Car parking – dedicated, accessible parking is needed: for example, for visitors with a disability; for the drop-off and collection of residents with a disability; for support services that may be providing daily care for residents; for OZHarvest deliveries; and for maintenance workers
• Wi-fi access – needs to be considered as an essential service to ensure social connection and enable working/schooling-from-home options
• Night-time safety in higher density precincts – needs to be better considered through planning and designing for improved community surveillance and physical design, and to ensure physical safety and emotional wellbeing
• Site selection – needs to maximise opportunities for liveable and accessible design outcomes, and while clever design can sometimes resolve these issues, every opportunity for successful living needs to be maximised.
Other elements are considered in this important and timely research.

WA government to allocate an extra $875 million to social housing in 2021-22 state budget

The West Australian government has announced it will allocate an extra $875 million towards social housing, as it prepares to hand down the state budget on Thursday.

Key points:
– The majority of the funds will be spent on a new investment fund
– In total, $2.1 billion will be spent on social housing over four years
– About 3,300 new homes will be created, with others repaired

The funding comprises a $750 million social housing investment fund — most of which will be spent on new social houses in the following 2022-23 financial year, with the remaining $228 million to be spent on short-term projects.

In total, more than $2.1 billion will be spent on social housing over four years, to build about 3,300 new properties.