"Peak community and housing groups today called on the Commonwealth Government to work with them in developing a national housing strategy to address the worsening housing affordability crisis in Australia. The groups, including the Australian Council of Social Service, National Shelter, Homelessness Australia, the Community Housing Federation of Australia and the National Association of Tenant Organisations, today released ‘An Affordable Housing Reform Agenda' which outlines reform priorities to achieve an efficient and affordable housing system that strengthens productivity and participation.
Priorities include:
- Reforming the tax treatment of housing to remove distortions and improve affordability;
- Public and private investment in new affordable housing stock to address the shortfall in affordable housing stock;
- Reform of urban planning, land and building regulation to retain, promote and create affordable housing;
- Increasing the maximum rate and improving indexation of Commonwealth Rent Assistance to relieve rental stress;
- Reforming tenancy protections to provide more security for renters; and
- Adequate and consistent funding for homelessness services to ensure we meet our goal of halving homelessness by 2020."