Churches and housing

But the issue that is rarely raised is that the people who have built those new developments and who have made handsome profits from them have been able to do so because of massive Government spending on the Homebush Bay site. Again, when the Government constructs the Chatswood to Parramatta rail link it will have a large impact on development potential along the route. Why should not some of this resource be directed towards affordable housing? In the report of the Affordable Housing Taskforce to the NSW Government, it states: "Another key aspect of State Government responsibility is through its planning and approval powers. These systems will need to be used more effectively to provide stronger leadership, incentives and pressures which will encourage local councils and other parties to contribute to the necessary improvement in the supply of affordable housing."

Again, while the Government has been keen to encourage church and community groups to put in land and resources for affordable housing projects, how much has the Government itself done in this regard? Why has the situation developed whereby the Government can say in regard to surplus Government land that it must always be sold at market rates? The closure of many health institutions in recent years has provided opportunities for Government, but they have not been taken. Sites which Governments never paid for in the first place are sold at market rates, while we are told that there are no resouces for affordable housing projects.

Why did the NSW Government not accept the recommendation of its Affordable Housing Task Force to establish targets for affordable housing in each region of the State? Its response, to establish a small directorate and to give them the token amount of $10 million for demonstration projects, was very inadequate.

Unless some of these issues are addressed, we face the prospect of more and more households coming under housing stress, and therefore greater social needs emerging. The impacts of the Olympics and the introduction of the GST at the same time this year are two potential factors for the increase in rents, and this will possibly push more households into housing stress. The decline of many traditional sources of low cost housing is also another factor.

So, for the churches there are two priorities. First, we must continue to lobby the Commonwealth Government to not only preserve but to improve the CSHA. We must continue to lobby the State Government to actively show leadership in regard to housing affordability and to address some of the basic causes of homelessness. Finally, the churches themselves must be prepared to do whatever they can to channel resources into this area. Spare land, spare buildings, management abilities, etc, are all part of that picture.