Supercharging Community Housing Growth in Queensland

Housing Australia recently announced the first round of approvals for the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF). Amid the positive national narrative, Queensland received a disappointing result.

In the first round of the HAFF, 13,742 social and affordable housing dwellings were approved across 185 projects. This shows the private sector and community housing organisation’s strong interest in collaborating and delivering affordable housing projects.

As the state's peak body for housing and homelessness, Q Shelter understands that Queensland Community Housing Providers (CHPs) submitted bids for over 4,000 much-needed social and affordable homes. However, only 1,315 of those homes were approved in this first round.

By contrast, Victoria and New South Wales netted 4,135 and 3,266 dwellings, respectively, and WA, with 11% of the nation's population, received 20% of the total dwellings announced in round one projects.

Whilst Housing Australia will have considered various factors to determine outcomes for Round One of the HAFF, it’s hard not to think Queensland has fared poorly here.

So, how could this result have occurred?

There are several factors to consider when addressing this question. These may include project readiness, construction costs, and value for money. However, another lens might suggest that Queensland has yet to actively pursue deliberate growth strategies in community housing policy areas compared to many other states and territories. While some notable advancements have occurred in the last 18 months, the policies remained largely unchanged for the past decade. In contrast, states and territories such as New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and even the Northern Territory have made significant progress in the same timeframe.  This has occurred through more equity ownership and stock management growth (which ensures CHPs can secure finance and achieve more housing outcomes), sector capacity-building programs, and industry roadmaps.

Although Queensland's HAFF Round One result is underwhelming, we know CHPs continue to play a crucial role in the housing system by providing social and affordable homes to vulnerable Queenslanders.

At Q Shelter, we are committed to strengthening the role of CHPs through a more enabling policy framework and operating model in the future. We are confident that this can be achieved by investing in a Community Housing Industry Road Map to 2046 that aligns with state government population and housing targets. This roadmap could identify the required size and scale of community housing in Queensland and provide a strategic growth plan to achieve those objectives.

This week's announcement from the Queensland Government that the Community Housing Futures program will be refunded is a critical step in addressing some of the gaps. But its only one part of the puzzle.

It should also be noted that the HAFF and programs like it are critically important to the future investment in social and affordable housing in Australia. We need to ensure that all states and territories benefit from an appropriate allocation of funds to meet unprecedented community needs.  For Queensland to be effective in future rounds, we must position our community housing sector for sizeable growth, as has been achieved in most other states and territories.

In the lead-up to next month's Queensland State Election, Q Shelter is calling on current and future Queensland Government decision-makers to partner with industry to develop a community housing industry roadmap to 2046.

Jackson Hills is the Policy & Strategic Engagement Manager at Q Shelter.