Tenants money builds affordable housing

A recent media release from the Minister for Social Housing, Brad Hazzard, refers to the NSW Government committing $270million to affordable housing projects during the first four rounds of the now discontinued National Rental Affordability Scheme.

A portion of that $270million comes from tenants' money.

Pages 28 and 29 of the Rental Bond Board's 2015/16 Annual Report show grants and subsidies in the amount of $2.5million going to NRAS in both 2015 and 2016.

The Minister's media release is reproduced here in full:

NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR 65 FAMILIES 

Some Sydneysiders who have been struggling to rent have been able to move into brand new affordable housing in Sydney’s west, paying rents at least 20 per cent below the market rate. 

Minister for Family and Community Services and Social Housing, Brad Hazzard has officially opened the new Bridge Housing development at the Bungarribee estate in Blacktown. 

“The NSW Government has forged very close ties with the Community Housing Sector, both in the provision of social housing and affordable housing, and I am delighted that Bridge Housing has been able to support so many people with this development,” Mr Hazzard said. 

CEO of Bridge Housing, John Nicolades, said “We are delighted to have completed our first major affordable housing development, providing 65 well designed and energy efficient homes to families struggling in Sydney’s difficult housing market.
“We have another two projects that will deliver a further 47 affordable homes by December 2016.” 

Bridge Housing’s $25 million development has been built on land purchased from UrbanGrowth NSW in 2013, with the support of $1.8 million in FACS funding and incentives and funds from the Commonwealth through the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). 

New figures from FACS shows that a record 1,252 new affordable rental homes were delivered under the NRAS in 2015-16, bringing the total number to 4,653.
NSW committed around $270 million during the first four NRAS rounds, with NSW’s contribution attracting over $1 billion in additional funding commitments from Community Housing Providers and private sector investors. 

Thirty-one of the homes owned by Bridge will be permanent affordable housing; thirty-four have been sold to private investors to help fund the project, and are leased as affordable housing for the next 10 years.

Olympic Park-Bridge Housing management partnership

Sydney Olympic Park Authority ('SOPA') and Bridge Housing have entered into an arrangement for management of up to 50 dwellings. SOPA is a statutory authority responsible for management and development of Sydney Olympic Park. Bridge Housing is a registered 'Tier 1' Community Housing Provider, currently managing 1716 Social and Affordable housing properties across Sydney. 

Bridge Housing's 2015 annual report states that Bridge and SOPA have agreed that Bridge will manage "up to 50" properties delivered under an affordable housing program devised by the park authority. According to the Bridge Housing website, the properties variously contain 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms, and are interspersed among private dwellings. 23 are currently tenanted, and this number is expected to rise to 50 by 2017. 

Above: aerial view of Sydney Olympic Park

Bridge Housing's website provides that the agreement was "won" by "competitive tender", and its management services are provided to SOPA on a fee for service basis. Accordingly, Bridge Housing says it is unbound by requirements of the National Regulatory System for Community Housing (NRSCH) in its management of the properties, except if its activities impact upon its viability as a Community Housing Provider. The agreement is therefore an essentially private arrangement for the provision and management of housing, rather than a conventional Affordable Housing program. 

However, Bridge Housing has provided that it complies with the NSW Affordable Housing Guidelines in its management of the SOPA properties.

According to SOPA General Manager (Commercial) Nick Hubble, the Authority has developed a policy to allocate properties delivered under the scheme to persons employed within the park. He provides further, "We have a preference in the park for people who are engaged in sports programs...Bridge Housing essentially take our policy, they connect people who are looking for that housing supply, and run an end to end service". Bridge Housing's website states that the policy allows for the properties to be allocated to athletes, coaches, technical staff, and other workers such as police operating in the park. Bridge has provided that allocation of the properties to such persons is preferred though not strictly required under the SOPA policy.

Our response

Community Housing Providers are increasingly vital to the delivery and management of Social and Affordable Housing in NSW. In addition to dominating the Affordable Housing space, the Future Directions strategy declares that community providers will own or manage up to 35% of all Social Housing in the State by 2026. Large 'Tier 1 providers' such as Bridge are particularly important to the provision and maintenance of these services.

As a corporation charged by statute with ownership and management of what was once Crown land, SOPA does inhabit a somewhat ambiguous space between the public and the private. But it is clearly not engaged in Social or Affordable Housing issues in any meaningful sense. Its intention to develop and provide properties at below market rent - even a modest 50 - is therefore welcome. As is its implicit acknowledgment that other organisations are better positioned than itself to managed those properties. Other private and semi-private organisations would do well to adopt a similar sense of social responsibility.

But the projects confuses a development that a private landlord and its agent elect to offer on an affordable basis with what is conventionally called 'Affordable Housing' (for example, as defined by the Centre for Affordable Housing). There appears to be little to nothing here that actually requires the SOPA properties to be provided as Affordable Housing. Moreover, the allocation policy applied to the project by the park authority is particularly narrow. Bridge's decision to adhere to the NSW Affordable Housing Guidelines should at least ensure appropriate management and charging of rent. 

But it also raises the question of whether the line between community service and private initiative could be allowed to blur for providers ambitious to expand their reach. Indeed we are aware of instances in which Community Housing Providers engaged in fee for service management have abandoned such requirements in ending individual tenancies. Community Housing Providers are also exempted from the Property, Stock and Business Agents Act that regulates private operators engaged in property management.

In all, it is appropriate to question whether Community Housing Providers should be bound by the national regulatory requirements, as well as applicable State-level provisions, for all properties they manage. These are providers that have received significant public funds and land to assist their rise to prominence. And the national requirements were developed by the sector itself - partly as a means of demonstrating its professionalism and capacity for self-regulation. But more than anything, they should be bound to a standard befitting their status as the new vanguard of Social and Affordable Housing. 

We welcome feedback from all tenants, including those resident in Sydney Olympic Park affordable housing properties. This may be provided to contact [at] tenantsunion.org.au. Your anonymity will be respected. 

Cowper Street sale, development announced

On 9 December 2015, NSW Social Housing Minister Brad Hazzard announced the sale of a lot on Cowper Street, Glebe, to developer Roxy Gordon Pty Ltd. 

According to a media release issued by Mr. Hazzard, a mixed use development will be constructed on the site. The project will consist of 497 new dwellings - 247 private dwellings (49.7%), 159 social housing dwellings (32%), and 91 affordable housing dwellings (18.3%). The affordable housing component will be provided to "key workers". The Government intends to submit a development application for the project prior to Christmas 2015, and expects works will be completed by the end of 2018. 

Artist's impression of the Cowper Street redevelopment

The sale price for the site was $67 million. The Minister's press release says this will be reinvested to cover the social and affordable housing component of the new development. It is unclear how much construction of the social and affordable dwellings is expected to cost. 

According to a Family and Community Services media release dated 17 June 2015, Bridge Housing will manage the social housing component of the development, and City West Housing will manage the affordable housing component. According to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald dated June 13 2015, NSW Treasury has also provided title to this land to the community housing providers. 

The Cowper Street site has been vacant since the demolition of fifteen public housing apartment blocks in 2011. Hansard states that the former site contained 134 public housing units, and 208 tenants were relocated prior to demolition.

A separate development application for the site was lodged by the Government in 2011, but was contested by community groups. According to a Sydney Morning Herald article dated 14 May 2011, this development application was for a mixed use residential site of 493 dwellings - consisting of 250 private units (50.7%), 153 public housing units (31%), and 90 affordable housing units (18.3%). 

The project has not been listed as part of the Department of Family and Community Services' 'Communities Plus' program. The relationship between the Cowper Street redevelopment and the '$1 billion Social and Affordable Housing Fund' is not clear. 

Please comment below if you've seen or heard anything about the Cowper Street redevelopment not included in this story. 

Millers Point

Millers Point is the site of the first social housing in New South Wales – in 1900, during an outbreak of bubonic plague, the NSW Government resumed the wharves and surrounding land, almost accidentally becoming a landlord to the workers who lived there. Before that it was one of the first suburbs in colonial New South Wales.

Now the future of social housing in Millers Point is under a cloud – or, in the NSW State Government's words, 'under review'. Finance and Services Minister Greg Pearce announced the review in the media late last year, and subsequently confirmed in Parliament that the Government was considering the disposal of 208 social housing properties in and around Millers Point. This would represent all of the social housing in Millers Point and Dawes Point, and would follow the 36 properties already disposed of, or slated for disposal, by the previous State Government.

As part of the review, the NSW Land and Housing Corporation has engaged a consultant to conduct a social impact assessment (SIA). We understand that a preliminary report from the SIA may be made around the middle of this year, with the final report to come later in the year. As for the review itself: we don't know when that will conclude.

One thing is clear already: there is very strong feeling amongst tenants that no-one should have to leave their homes and that social housing must be maintained in and around Millers Point. In February a packed meeting of tenants elected a committee – the Committee of Residents Elected by Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks, or 'CoRE' – to represent their interests in the review process. Tenants can contact CoRE by email: coremillerspoint[at]gmail[dot]com.

A bit more background. The social housing at Millers Point has an unusual history – quite apart from its genesis in the black plague. For decades the properties were owned by the Maritime Services Board, and were transferred to the Department of Housing in the 1980s. And because of this unusual history, the buildings are unusual too.

Many of them are listed on the State Heritage Register. About 50 of the properties were used at some time as boarding houses; in fact, after the Department of Housing took over, 35 boarding houses continued to operate under long-term leases. The last of those leases ended in 2009; since then, some have been managed by a community housing organisation, Bridge Housing; some have been let to individuals; some have been left vacant; and some have been disposed of. Late last year (and apparently separately from the current review), the Land and Housing Corporation lodged applications with the City of Sydney to change the use of its remaining boarding houses to individual occupation, ahead of their disposal.

About the disposals that have already happened, or that have been slated to happen. In 2006, the State Government announced that 16 vacant properties would be put up for sale to private owners – actually, not quite sold, but rather disposed on 99-year leases. Of the 16, 10 were former boarding houses. Proceeds from the disposals were supposed to be used to fund social housing acquisitions in the inner west. In 2010, a second tranche of disposals was announced – 20 vacant properties this time, and they will include at least some former boarding houses – but we don't know when these disposals will actually take place. Again, proceeds were supposed to go to social housing in the inner west... giving the troubling impression that the same benefit (more social housing in the west) keeps getting trotted out for each new lot of disposals. A proper accounting of the disposals and acquisitions has not be done.

The TU is in contact with CoRE and will present some of their work on the future of social housing in Millers Point in another post soon.

In the meantime, why not have a look around this wonderful neighbourhood yourself, either on foot or via youtube.