[Greens-Media] (Sylvia Hale MLC) NSW budget fails housing test

[Christopher Holley]

Housing problem, what housing problem?  - Budget no help to those
struggling in Australia’s most expensive city and state

Sylvia Hale, NSW Greens spokesperson on Housing, today said that the
housing component of the budget showed that “the government’s talk
about being interested in housing affordability is about as solid as a
fibro shack." 

“What we wanted to see was some bricks and mortar.

“This budget shows that the State Government has no intention of
tackling the eroding housing affordability situation in NSW.

“The NSW State Government reduced its funding to the Housing Policy
and Assistance Program from $237m to $224.5m, at a time when other state
governments have recently significantly boosted their housing budgets.
There is a slight increase overall, but not to the same extent as has
occurred in other states and territories.

“There’s nothing much in this housing budget that is new.

“Certainly, those currently ineligible for public housing, that is
the working lower and median income earners who are trapped paying rent
to private landlords, get almost nothing.

“On the other hand, property investors will get land tax cuts and no
longer have to pay mortgage duty.

“The government has favoured community housing with some extra
funding, but to be effective, community housing needs to be able to
grow. The state government refuses to give community housing
organisations title to properties, which makes it almost impossible for
them to borrow money to purchase more community housing. Likewise, they
need to be able to charge a range of rents to a range of income groups,
as City West Housing Company is already able to do.

“The Aboriginal Housing Office has lost out. There will be less money
and fewer new dwellings for Indigenous tenants. 

“The other area that has been given a rough deal is homelessness
programs. Funding has been cut from $2m to $1.4m - a totally
unacceptable outcome, given the figures that show more people, including
children, are in danger of becoming homeless and presenting at
services.

“This is an extremely mundane outcome at a time of rising housing
unaffordability”, concluded Ms Hale.



Contact: Chris Holley on 02 9230 3030 or 0437 779 546





Comparison of 2006-2007 to 2007-2008

·	The total housing budget increased from $712.1m to $763.2m

·	Less will be spent on social housing supply, funding dropping
from last year’s $394.8m to $392.2m this year.

·	This meant a drop in actual new social housing stock  -1013 this
year compared to 1178 the year before. There will be fewer housing
completions and fewer continuation of leases.

·	Community housing picked up extra funds to manage more stock
from $94.1m to $128.1m. 

·	Funding to the Aboriginal Housing Office on the other hand has
gone down, from $21.3 to $19.1m for commencing or acquiring 31 new
dwellings (as opposed to 52 last year. The AHO also lost money in the
capital expenditure are meaning less new dwellings (down from 52 last
year to 31).