24/11/2024
The Greens have proposed to pass the government’s stalled housing bills, Help to Buy and Build to Rent, in exchange for the government seizing the opportunity to fund viable projects overlooked by the Housing Australia Future Fund, getting enough homes under construction in the next year to house 60,000 people at risk of homelessness.
Prior to this final sitting fortnight of the year, the Greens wrote to Housing Minister Clare O’Neil with a compromise offer on the government’s housing bills, offering to pass both Help to Buy and Build to Rent if the government agreed to make progress on:
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Funding additional shovel-ready social and affordable housing projects submitted to the HAFF, which could mean construction starting on up to 25,000 more social and affordable homes in the next year
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Ensuring Build to Rent delivers genuinely affordable rental homes, by increasing the minimum number of affordable tenancies to 30% and capping rents at the 25% of income for these
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Improving Help to Buy by removing the “income trap” requirement that participants pay back the government’s share of their house if their income exceeds the caps, and prioritising offering 40% equity for homes which are newly-built or off-the-plan and close to public transit, supporting the delivery of the type of well-located, medium-density housing rather than only inflating the price of existing housing
Last year the Greens secured $3 billion in additional direct funding for social and affordable housing in negotiations over the government’s Housing Australia Future Fund. The offer demonstrates the Greens willingness to negotiate as they did on the HAFF bill last year.
That $3 billion has already been put to work purchasing, renovating and constructing social homes through the Social Housing Accelerator and the National Housing Infrastructure Facility. The Social Housing Accelerator has already delivered homes, showing the power of direct funding.
Lines from Max Chandler-Mather, Greens spokesperson for Housing and Homelessness:
“The Greens have designed a compromise offer that is popular, achievable and easy to accept, it requires no new legislation and sits broadly within government policy.”
“Our proposal to fund 25,000 social and affordable homes comes from existing bids to the government’s own Housing Fund. They are ready to go, drawn from good applications made by community housing providers. The homes have land, architectural plans done, and either are close to, or have, planning approval. Each project is already costed, and all they need is government funding.”
“The Greens are offering Labor an opportunity to announce the construction of 25,000 social and affordable homes, helping over 60,000 people into affordable homes in the middle of a housing crisis, why on earth would Labor block that?”
“We know the Greens have a much more ambitious housing agenda than the government, and we’ll be taking our plan to the election. But what we’re offering Labor is an opportunity to set aside those differences for one moment, and achieve something for the thousands of Australians right now who could be saved from the brink of homelessness by a good compromise before the end of this Parliament.”
“Labor has a choice this week, hand more power to Dutton by doing deals with the Liberals, or work with the Greens to start tackling this massive housing crisis.”