Affordable housing debate
BY PAUL CLARK
A reform of negative gearing and the Capital Gains Tax is part of the Federal Labor party’s approach to tackling Australia’s affordable housing shortage. Federal Shadow Minister for Housing & Homelessness, Senator Doug Cameron, discussed tax reform at a forum hosted by the St Vincent de Paul Society at St Columba’s Church in Leichhardt last week.
The forum discussed the impacts of unaffordable housing on the community, and in particular, on homelessness and the severe financial pressures on the working poor. The St Vincent de Paul Society says there is a need for 100,000 new social and affordable homes in NSW over the next 20 years to combat the current 10 year waiting list for social and affordable housing.
Also addressing the forum were Greens Member for Balmain Jamie Parker, Reverend Bill Crews of the Exodus Foundation, CEO St Vincent de Paul Society NSW, Jack de Groot, and the Deputy General Manager Community and Engagement for the Inner West Council, John Warburton.
Reverend Crews warned that more people than ever are at risk of financial hardship.
“Costs have gone up but wages have not,” he said. “A lot of people are only one paycheque away from catastrophe.”
Revered Crews criticised government efforts to assist people only after they became homeless, instead of addressing the causes of the problem. “Letting the market regulate housing does not work,” he said.
Greens Member for Balmain Jamie Parker criticised what he said was a lack of NSW Government action on housing since an inquiry established by the NSW Legislative Council in 2013. “Only the State Government can impose affordable housing targets,” he said. “Local councils cannot.”
Representing the Inner West Council, Mr Warburton described the large profits available to developers from rezoning decisions, and said that this value uplift was rightfully a community resource which could be used to fund social and affordable housing.
“The only way Councils can access these windfall gains is through a voluntary planning agreement with the developer,” he said.
Although such agreements are sometimes reached, such an agreement is too rare to make available the amount of housing needed.
In his address to the forum, Senator Cameron said that the current federal government had abandoned housing to market forces, and was only now taking a belated interest because of voter backlash.
“The implications of the housing market were ignored by the Coalition until middle class parents discovered their children would have no chance of living in the suburbs they were brought up in, unless the parents were rich enough to support them,” he said.
“For nearly four years the Coalition Government has been silent on housing and homelessness until their political base reacted with concern on housing prices.”
Senator Cameron identified tax reform as an urgent issue that could help solve the housing crisis, one of a number of issues which Federal Labor would address if elected to government.
“Labor clearly understands that any housing affordability plan that does not reform negative gearing and capital gains tax is a sham,” he said.
Other measures that Senator Cameron said would improve housing affordability and reduce homelessness include limiting direct borrowing by self-managed superannuation funds and the introduction of a vacant property tax and increased fees and penalties for foreign investors.
Mr de Groot flagged a positive development in that NSW Government asset sales contributed $1 billion to the Social and Affordable Housing Fund. As part of this initiative, he said, St Vincent de Paul will build or purchase 500 houses over the next 3 years. 70 per cent of the houses will be social housing with affordable housing, making up the remaining 30 per cent.
Mr de Groot also said that the society will provide long term support to residents.
“In the next 25 years we will be supporting residents to make homes. This is not a bricks and mortar campaign alone, it is about providing the support services people need to flourish,” he said.
