The lack of public housing in the Hawkesbury may be helped by a new state government discussion paper on ‘social housing’, according to public housing group for Hawkesbury and Nepean, Wentworth Community Housing.
However the paper’s emphasis on trying to get public housing clients out into the open rental or ownership market may not apply to most Hawkesbury clients, according to Wentworth Community’s chief executive Nick Sabel, who stressed the majority of Wentworth’s clients were in need and could not leave social housing just yet.
He said like direct public housing clients, Wentworth clients paid 25per cent of their income in rent, but most were able to claim Commonwealth rent assistance, further boosting Wentworth’s revenue.
While there are about 1100 public housing homes, now known as social housing, in the Hawkesbury, with 800 managed by Wentworth Community and 300 by Housing NSW, it’s not enough to meet demand.
‘‘There’s an under-supply of housing stock, so how do we generate additional housing?’’ Mr Sabel said.
‘‘We’d be looking at redeveloping old properties, subject to no problems such as being flood-prone, or acquiring new properties.
‘‘But that all depends on funding.’’
He said the paper gave some direction and understanding of how to better address the lack of housing supply.
‘‘Overall, I agree with [its] aims of putting people on the path to independence and sustaining the social housing sector,’’ he said.
The discussion paper, released last week, suggested that some tenants be encouraged to ‘‘transition out’’ to the private rental market or home ownership.
The Community Services Minister, Gabrielle Upton, said the system had failed to keep pace with demand and had encouraged social housing dependency.
Ms Upton said the system might better serve tenants by connecting them with education and employment opportunities.
Mr Sabel agreed that overall such sentiments ‘‘ring true to us’’.
‘‘It’s critical we look at ways of linking our tenants with education and employment,’’ he said, but that ‘‘community housing should be there for as long as people need it’’. ‘‘We hope if people can get on their feet and increase their income, they would re-enter the community by going into the private rental market or home ownership,’’ he said.
He added that this would free-up social housing for others on the long waiting list.
