Tuesday, 21 March 2023

Social housing regulation review

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (17:15): (116) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Housing, and the action I seek is that he table the final report of the social housing regulation review. In 2021 the government undertook an independent review into the regulation of our social housing sector, looking at how it supports both existing and prospective tenants and also encourages future investment in public and community housing. The interim report made a series of important recommendations for reform, including introducing minimum housing standards for social housing properties, having a single regulator for public and community housing, having a shared complaints body and putting tenants’ interests in legislation. The final report was delivered to the then minister in May 2022, but the report itself has never been made public.

In fact the regulation review is not the only outstanding item from the last term. The government’s promised 10-year strategy for social and affordable housing similarly failed to materialise. There has been little progress on the Ombudsman’s recommendations from her investigation into complaint handling in the social housing sector, which found that public and community housing renters were being failed by current complaints processes and recommended the creation of a new social housing ombudsman. And they have completely failed to respond to the Legal and Social Issues Committee inquiry into homelessness. This was a broad-ranging report on the whole continuum of the housing and homelessness sectors and made important recommendations for systemic reform, including that the system be reorientated away from the crisis management focus to early intervention and sufficient long-term provision of housing.

We are approaching the end of the initial tranche of the Big Housing Build funding, yet the number of social housing homes in Victoria has increased by just 74 units in the last four years – a paltry number given that over 12,000 new homes were promised and the waiting list has grown by about 45 per cent, from 45,000 applications in June 2018 to 64,168 in June 2022. This means about 120,000 people are waiting for social housing. Current residents and the many families and individuals on the waiting list in the housing sector are desperate for a long-term vision and planning from the government. We need a commitment that the Big Housing Build is not a flash in the pan but will be backed up by ongoing long-term investment in public and affordable housing, and we need to see a proper commitment to systemic housing reform, including by committing to implementing the outstanding recommendations from inquiries and reports from the last term of government. As a starting point in this reform, I ask the minister to table the final report of the social housing regulation review.