Innovative solutions to meet a range of housing needs
The Department actively seeks to identify gaps in the availability of suitable products and services to meet housing needs, and to influence the development of products and services to meet those gaps. Initiatives undertaken in 2005–06 were designed to address homelessness, encourage supported housing, assist with private rental accommodation, increase the supply of affordable housing, and to facilitate home ownership.
Addressing homelessness
The After-hours Temporary Accommodation Line
The After-hours Temporary Accommodation Line is a free-call 1800 telephone service that helps homeless people access temporary low-cost accommodation and appropriate support services.
The service is available from 4.30p.m. to 10.00p.m. on weekdays and from 10.00a.m. to 10.00p.m. on weekends and public holidays. It directs people who are in housing crisis or homeless to temporary accommodation in low-cost hotels, motels or residential parks until they can make longer-term arrangements.
Clients must meet eligibility criteria, including being homeless or in housing crisis or unable to return to their usual address due to exceptional circumstances.
Accommodation is provided for a small number of nights and to be eligible for the service, clients must be able to manage themselves independently.
During 2005–06, 2,793 people received temporary accommodation through the
After-hours Temporary Accommodation Line.
The Signpost
The Signpost Hunter Homelessness Assessment and Referral Service is a first point of contact for homeless men and women looking for help and for agencies seeking the most appropriate service for their homeless clients.
After evaluating the service in 2005 the Department agreed to continue the service for another two years, with an expanded focus. A tender process selected Mission Australia as the organisation that will deliver the next phase of the Signpost.
Phase two of the Signpost is jointly funded by the Department of Community Services and the Department of Housing and commenced in January 2006. It offers homeless people immediate assistance, including low-cost accommodation, as well as providing appropriate referrals and longer-term case management.
The service will have an expanded focus on strategies to strengthen early intervention work with people at risk of homelessness and encourage joint case management through partnerships with community housing providers, women’s and youth Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) services.
Signpost records indicate that 169 referrals were made between 2003 and 2005. Approximately 40 per cent of clients were successfully assisted to find accommodation and 49 per cent of clients were supported by providing links to other agencies.
Other Programs
The Department operates a wide range of programs for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness that are reported elsewhere in this Annual Report. They include:
- The Crisis Accommodation Program;
- The Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative;
- Port Jackson Supported Housing (page 30);
- ‘My Place’;
- Tenancy Guarantees;
- I-CHOSS; and
- The Partnership Against Homelessness.
Supported housing
The Department helps people who have complex support needs living in social housing to sustain their tenancies. This is achieved through the implementation of innovative supported housing models, working in partnership with support providers under the Housing and Human Services Accord and participating in whole-of-government initiatives that assist social housing tenants with support needs to live full lives in the community.
Supported housing models
The Department has identified that over a quarter of all tenants are receiving the Disability Support Pension and nearly a third of household heads are over 65 years of age. To assist people to sustain their tenancies, the Department continues to build on its existing supported housing programs through implementing new models of supported housing for people with complex needs.
During 2005–06, the Department developed a draft supported housing policy framework to enhance business planning. This process improved access to social housing for people with support needs.
Please see Objective 2 for more information on Port Jackson Supported Housing
Please see Objective 4 for more information on ‘My Place’
Please see Objective 4 for more information on HASI
Partnerships
A key component of any supported housing project includes the work done in partnership with a range of community and government organisations. Through the development of the principles of the Housing and Human Services Accord, the Department has clarified the roles of housing providers and the organisations that provide support services to people with care needs.
During 2005–06 these principles were also used to prioritise business strategies in the provision of supported housing models.
Please see Objective 4 for more information on the Accord
Whole-of-government initiatives
The Department also participates in a number of key whole-of-government initiatives that ensure the viability of the Department’s supported housing projects. These include:
- cross-agency projects to implement the NSW Government’s ten-year disability plan, Stronger Together: A New Direction for Disability Services in NSW 2006–10
- assistance to carers through the NSW Government’s Carers Action Plan.
Assistance in private rental accommodation
The Department is developing integrated services to help clients access and sustain tenancies in the private rental market. This work builds on current private rental assistance and includes:
- reviewing the operation of current private market products;
- developing best practice delivery models; and
- identifying service needs and developing new products to meet them.
The Department currently has a range of private rental assistance products.
Rentstart
The Rentstart Program is an important service the Department offers by providing financial assistance to help clients establish or sustain a tenancy in the private sector. It also assists people facing homelessness with temporary accommodation.
In 2005–06, 56,804 Rentstart ‘units of assistance’ were provided to 34,059 households for a total program cost of $24.04 million.
Households assisted through Rentstart may receive more than one type of assistance on any one occasion. For example, a household may be assisted with a bond as well as advance rent at the same time. This help is defined as two units of assistance.
Rentstart by Phone
Rentstart by Phone was delivered to the North Coast and many parts of the New England area in 2005–06. Close to 7,000 assistances were provided, a 75 per cent increase from the previous year. This included nearly 1,200 assistances of temporary accommodation for homeless people.
Since the project commenced in 2003, more than 13,000 assessments for assistance have been undertaken, and in November 2005 the project received the Premier’s Public Sector Bronze Award for Services to Rural and Regional NSW.
An evaluation of this project in June 2005 confirmed that the project could offer up to 30 per cent savings on delivery costs compared to face-to-face service provision, as well as providing a wider range of access points.
In 2006–07, the Department is planning to increase the number of delivery points for Rentstart by Phone by operating in the Hunter and Central Coast areas, through collaborating with SAAP services to improve access to temporary accommodation for homeless people. Consideration is also being given to providing similar services in the metropolitan area.
Special Assistance Subsidies
Special Assistance Subsidies are another form of targeted rental assistance, providing funding to eligible clients with a mental and physical disability or people living with HIV/AIDS to assist them to rent in the private market.
As at 30 June 2006, 1,299 subsidies had been provided at a cost of $8.75 million. Of these, 854 were provided for people with a mental and physical disability (at a cost of $4.94 million), and 445 were for people living with HIV/AIDS (at a cost of $3.81 million). Please see Objective 1 for more information on assistance to people with disabilities.
Private Rental Brokerage Service
The Private Rental Brokerage Service is a pilot project that aims to help clients with complex needs find and maintain private sector tenancies. The pilot began in Coffs Harbour in 2003 and was expanded in 2005 to the Hunter, Illawarra and Albury areas.
It assists clients to access the private market through brokerage with real estate agents and landlords, and by seeking the cooperation of other support services.
By April 2006, the Private Rental Brokerage Service had housed 433 clients with complex needs in the private rental market and another 48 in public housing.
Another 91 clients were receiving assistance to find private rental housing.
Tenancy Guarantee
The Tenancy Guarantee program helps people who can sustain a private rental market tenancy, but who are experiencing barriers to establishing a new tenancy.
These barriers include discrimination based on personal circumstances, no rental tenancy history or a problem with their rental history.
A Tenancy Guarantee is an offer to pay for arrears or damages to a maximum value of $1,000 over the full amount of the bond paid to the NSW Rental Bond Board by the tenant under the residential tenancy lease. In 2005–06, the Guarantees were delivered through six community housing associations:
- Hume Community Housing Association
- Wentworth Area Community Housing
- Sapphire Coast Tenancy Scheme
- Community Housing Mid North Coast
- Anglicare North Coast
- Shoalhaven Community Housing Scheme.
The Tenancy Guarantee pilot project received a Silver Award in the 2005 Premier’s
Public Sector Awards.
From July 2003 to June 2006, 1,821 applications were received and 1,312 guarantees issued.
In 2006–07, it is anticipated the program will be expanded to a further 12 locations.
The Department is examining ways to improve the access of information on private rental market options for clients, such as the use of self-service computer terminals in Department of Housing offices to provide links to sites such as the Office of Fair Trading and the Real Estate Institute of NSW website.
Housing Contact Centre
The Housing Contact Centre provides a 24-hour/seven-days-per-week contact service for the Department’s clients for queries by telephone, email, fax or letter. During the year, the Centre received 637,000 telephone inquiries from clients and other stakeholders.
The following initiatives were delivered in 2005–06:
- Home Purchase Advisory Service and Mortgage Assistance Scheme
- conducted housing register surveys
- provided support for the introduction of water usage charges
- processed water deduction payments
- supported the Maintenance Reform pilots.
Affordable housing
The Centre for Affordable Housing was established by the NSW Government to work on developing new directions to address issues of housing affordability.
The Centre works with local and state government, not-for-profit organisations and private companies to increase the supply of affordable housing, for low to moderate income households.
The Centre’s role includes providing advice on potential models for new affordable housing projects, including partnering options, structured projects, use of planning mechanisms, design, development and management of affordable housing.
Following is a summary of key achievements for 2005–06.
Affordable rental accommodation
The Centre for Affordable Housing has completed several pilot demonstration projects, which continue to be managed by experienced not-for-profit community housing organisations.
The demonstration projects provide an opportunity to develop and test new approaches to rent setting that address work disincentives, which can exist when income-based rents are charged.
The projects are due for evaluation in 2006–07.
Partnering with local government
The Centre for Affordable Housing is working with local government to develop strategies that benefit communities by encouraging appropriate affordable
housing.
The Centre is currently progressing three key projects supporting local government’s housing strategies:
- The Housing Kit for Local Government in NSW: a web-based resource that will provide councils with assessment methods, data and practical guidance for conducting a housing market analysis and creating a Local Housing Strategy. The Kit is due to be launched in 2006–07.
- The Affordable Housing Presentation Project: a tool for community housing providers to discuss and negotiate affordable housing partnerships with councils, which is due to be released in 2006–07.
- Northern Rivers Region Project: through which the Centre encourages a regional approach to housing projects initiated by councils in the Northern Rivers region and provides those Councils with support in developing Local Housing Strategies.
Housing for people with a disability
The Centre for Affordable Housing continued to work with other government agencies such as the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care, to develop affordable housing models, including a shared equity style model for people with a disability.
The Departments’ aim is to develop a demonstration project once a preferred model has been identified.
St Mary’s Affordable Housing Project
The St Mary’s Affordable Housing Project is being developed to increase the supply of affordable housing stock in Western Sydney. It will leverage private sector
and social investment, develop new finance and delivery models and explore affordable rental and ownership products.
Service delivery will be monitored through the Office of Community Housing’s
performance-based registration system.
Facilitating home ownership
Through the Department, financial help is provided to home buyers facing difficulties in maintaining their home loan repayments as well as providing advice to purchasers and access to low-deposit loans for low-to-moderate income earners.
Mortgage Assistance Scheme
The Mortgage Assistance Scheme provides financial help of up to $12,000 to any eligible homeowner in NSW experiencing temporary difficulties with their home loan repayments.
Those difficulties may be due to unemployment, accident, illness or some other unexpected life crisis. Mortgage Assistance is given as an interest-free loan paid directly to the home lender.
The loan is usually in the form of payment for home loan arrears or a subsidy towards home loan repayments over a period of up to one year. The loan is repayable by the client once the crisis is over.
During 2005–06, the Mortgage Assistance Scheme approved assistance totalling $850,000 to 145 new households and collected $828,000 in repayments from households that had previously received assistance.
Home Purchase Advisory Service
The Home Purchase Advisory Service (HPAS) provides free, impartial information and advice to the general public on home purchase. The service may assist with inquiries about a range of free publications including an information package that is available to the public.
The HPAS can be contacted through a freecall telephone service or by email. During 2005–06, the HPAS assisted with 9,104 inquiries.
Research and development
Rent and Sales Reports
The Department published four editions of the Rent and Sales Report during 2005–06. The Report has been published quarterly since 1987 and is the sole authoritative source of data on NSW rent movements.
As well as providing guidance to tenants, landlords and the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT) on fair rent-setting practices, the Report is used by Government to monitor housing affordability and supply.
Housing providers use the Report in setting market rents and costing head leasing and special rental subsidies, whilst individuals use the Report for making private investment decisions.
Research bodies also use the data for social and economic research and the reports can be accessed from the Department’s website.
Perth National Housing Conference 2005
The biennial National Housing Conference provides an opportunity for sharing knowledge about national and international best practice in housing and related services.
Such opportunities help departmental officers improve policy development and service delivery.
The fourth National Housing Conference was held between 26–28 October 2005 in Perth. Under the theme of Building for Diversity, housing providers, policy makers, industry representatives, advocacy groups and academics canvassed issues of demographic change and sustainability.
The 2005 National Awards for Excellence in Community Housing were presented at the Conference. Prizes were awarded to three NSW community housing organisations including:
- Central Tablelands Housing Association
– Best Achievement – National Award for Overall Excellence in Community Housing;
- Cumberland Housing Co-op Ltd received three awards: Best Achievement
– National Award for Excellence in Asset Management and Best Achievement
– National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance, plus a High Commendation
– National Award for Overall Excellence in Community Housing; and
- St George Community Housing Association
– High Commendation
– National Award for Excellence in Organisational Management.
Overall, NSW won three of the six Best Achievement Awards available, and two of the seven High Commendations awarded.
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) is a national research organisation, specialising in housing and urban research and policy.
The Department has a role in setting AHURI’s research priorities, helps select new projects to be funded, and uses that research to develop and evaluate its policy and programs.
AHURI is jointly financed by the Australian Government and state and territory housing bodies under the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement (CSHA).