Bid to preserve affordable housing

The State Government has announced it has bought 29 homes on the Redcliffe Peninsula, which had been part of the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) and were likely to go back to the general rental pool.

The properties have been purchased, using the Housing Investment Fund, and will remain as affordable housing for new and existing tenants, many of whom feared they would become homeless.

The homes will be available to low-income households, including retirees, seniors and key workers in essential service roles.

The Redcliffe homes add to the more than 500 other affordable homes that have been secured through the Housing Investment Fund.

The fund has been used to retain as many NRAS homes as possible through partnerships with groups such as Coast2Bay and the National Affordable Housing Consortium.

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon says: “While we continue to build more social homes, we’re not afraid to work with community housing providers purchase properties through the Housing Investment Fund”.

There is also an 82-home social and affordable housing development being built on the Peninsula in partnership with Brisbane Housing Company and the Queensland Investment Corporation.

State Member for Redcliffe Yvette D'Ath made the announcement at Scarborough this afternoon, meeting with representatives from The Breakfast Club Redcliffe, which is an organisation at the coalface of homelessness on the Redcliffe Peninsula. 

“I’m proud to be a member of the Miles Labor Government which is not only building new properties to support homelessness but also purchasing existing properties to help people at risk homelessness," she says.

“It’s this innovative thinking in delivering affordable and socials housing that will stop people falling through the cracks."

The Breakfast Club Redcliffe spokeswoman Michelle Gilchrist welcomes the news.

“It will allow (existing tenants) the stability just to know they’re not going to be homeless. They are very concerned ... a lot of people out there ... with the scheme ending, they were going to lose their home,” Michelle says.

“It gives them some more stability to know they could be somewhere that they can afford and not having huge rental increases which has happened in some properties.”

She says losing these homes would have pushed some people onto the streets or out of the area and away from their support networks.

Michelle says there are more and more people sleeping rough at present, including those who are working but can’t afford or find a rental.

“Every time you turn around, there’s an older building being knocked down and rebuilt, and that means that’s one less rentable property that’s affordable,” she says.

“We need to build faster – we’ve got to build a lot more and we’ve got to build faster, which is harder.

Michelle says many more initiatives, such as the one announced today, are needed to make a significant difference.