Media Statements: Statements

High end property sales raise $11million

Arbouin, Shane — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:44:56 GMT

Content:

Housing and Works Minister Troy Buswell announced today that auctions of 10 Government houses in affluent suburbs over the past three months had raised $10,942,500.

The auctions generated more than $800,000 above the total reserve.

“The last three houses were auctioned over the weekend, bringing the total to almost $11million,” Mr Buswell said.

“We are now in the process of investing those proceeds into buying and building new social housing throughout the State.

“It makes sense when we have old homes in suburbs where values have increased that we capitalise on that extraordinary growth.

“Selling a small number of high value homes allows us to build or buy many more affordable homes in a range of suburbs for people on moderate incomes.

“I expect we will be able secure at least 35 new social housing dwellings from the proceeds of these 10 sales.

“And if we use these proceeds to build on our own land we could turn 10 dwellings into 60.

“This is an excellent result and a great example of one of the innovative ways we are working towards reaching our goal of providing 20,000 additional affordable housing dwellings by 2020.

“The State’s campaign to meet this target also includes partnerships with the Commonwealth to boost social housing stock; our review of eligibility; cracking down on anti-social behaviour and shared equity loan schemes.”

In the June 2009 quarter, the median house price for Perth was $445,000. The Department of Housing defines a high value property as one valued at twice the prevailing median house price.

The department’s stock review is ongoing and more homes will in future be identified as suitable for sale under the program.

Minister's office - 9222 9111

Date: 13/11/2009

Minister: Buswell

Portfolio: Housing and Works

Region: Eastern Metropolitan;Northern Metro & Perth CBD;South Eastern Suburbs;South Western Suburbs;Western Suburbs

Collaboration key to multi-million dollar homeless shelter project

Antartis, Jill — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:41:56 GMT

Content:

Housing Minister Troy Buswell today announced State Government funding of more than $22million for the creation of a major new facility in East Perth for the homeless.

The joint project with the Federal Government and Anglican not-for-profit organisation St Bartholomew’s House (St Bart’s) would see construction of the complex in Lime Street start early in 2010 for planned completion in 2012.

The Federal Government would contribute $7.3million and St Bart’s would contribute $1million to the project, which included 54 long-term accommodation units, 12 crisis units, 42 transitional lodging-house units and a 40-bed aged-care facility.

The land is owned by EPRA and will be leased to St Bart’s for 40 years.

“Today’s announcement will help the State Government achieve our goal to create 20,000 new affordable housing dwellings by 2020,” Mr Buswell said.

“We want to help people move out of homelessness and into housing - this is another step towards doing that.”

The Minister said the Department of Housing had worked successfully with St Bart’s since 1992 through its Community Housing programs.

“St Bart’s target people at greatest risk in the community, such as the aged, ill and homeless, showing them compassion and care and, most importantly, giving them a sense of hope for the future,” he said.

The East Perth complex will accommodate homeless men and be managed by St Bart’s, which has been awarded the status of Provisional Preferred Provider of social housing by the Department of Housing.

This recognises St Bart’s as having achieved standing in the 100 to 500 unit category of the community housing sector. As such, the not-for-profit organisation complies with the department’s stringent management and operating guidelines.

Minister's office - 9222 9111

Date: 6/11/2009

Minister: Buswell

Portfolio: Housing and Works

Region: Northern Metro & Perth CBD

231 affordable new Perth homes for drawing board

Arbouin, Shane — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:46:30 GMT

Content:

Housing Minister Troy Buswell today signed a $36million contract for the Satterley Property Group to deliver 231 new homes throughout Perth as part of the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Package.

Mr Buswell said the homes would be built on land owned by the Department of Housing (DOH) and linked to its New Living Program, which focused on revamping older suburbs

New homes would be built in Balga (65), Bertram (55), Girrawheen (81), Hamilton Hill (27), and Westminster (three) at a total cost of $36,172,456.

Altogether $550million would be spent in Western Australia to construct almost 2,000 new homes across stages one and two of the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan.

“These new homes will help us achieve our goal of creating 20,000 affordable housing dwellings by 2020,” the Minister said.

“The State Government is doing what it can to create the opportunities for homeless people to find a home and for social housing tenants to move into home ownership.

“The partnership with Satterley’s is a good example of greater collaboration between Government and the private sector, as recommended by the recently released Social Housing Taskforce.”

The Satterley Property Group has worked with the DOH since 1994 on development of New Living Projects in Kwinana, Armadale and Hamilton Hill and joint venture land developments in areas including Dalyellup and Butler.

Most of the new homes will be two bedroom, built to a six-star energy rating and form part of the department’s community housing program.

Minister's office - 9222 9111

Date: 2/11/2009

Minister: Buswell

Portfolio: Housing and Works

Region: Eastern Metropolitan;Northern Metro & Perth CBD;South Eastern Suburbs;South Western Suburbs;Western Suburbs

Greater protection from antisocial behaviour

Stratford, Pamela — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:19:53 GMT

Content:

Bad behaviour would no longer be tolerated in Western Australia’s public housing system following the introduction of a new Disruptive Behaviour Management Strategy for public housing, Housing and Works Minister Troy Buswell announced today.

The strategy, based on analysis of other jurisdictions in Australia and the United Kingdom, delivered on the Liberal-National Government’s 2008 election campaign promise to provide greater safeguards from antisocial behaviour.

“Changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will better enable the State Government to deliver on its responsibility for the safety and security of social housing tenants,” Mr Buswell said.

“Providing a safe and secure environment in State-funded houses is a responsibility which is shared by the Government and tenants.

“I will be working closely with the Department of Housing to ensure these changes are used in a consistent manner.”

The Government will be able to apply to the Magistrates Court for the termination of a tenancy agreement in extreme cases where the tenant has repeatedly allowed the premises to be used for an illegal purpose; caused or permitted a serious nuisance; or interfered with the peace, comfort or privacy of their neighbours.

The new Disruptive Behaviour Management Strategy sets an appropriate standard of behaviour and introduces new processes and sanctions for handling disruptive tenancies after the regular avenues of due process and fair effort to work with support agencies have been exhausted.

The changes would include new legally-enforceable Tenancy Behaviour Conditions; probationary fixed-term tenancies for returning tenants; the application of court-ordered visitor sanctions; and the introductions of a mediation service and early intervention teams.

The department would also adopt wider use of Section 64 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 to terminate the tenancies of severely disruptive tenants as required, as an interim measure until the amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act are passed.

Minister's office: 9222 9111

Date: 1/11/2009

Minister: Buswell

Portfolio: Housing and Works

Region: All

New social housing stock for South-West communities

Antartis, Jill — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:54:25 GMT

Content:

Almost 300 new affordable dwellings funded by the Federal and State governments have been announced for the South-West region, Housing and Works Minister Troy Buswell said today.

More than $60million will be spent on the 283 new homes.

These include 32 seniors units in East Bunbury funded with $8.5million from the Commonwealth’s Social Housing National Partnerships Agreement, and eight family homes in Glen Iris, funded with $1.4million from the State Government Stimulus Package.

Mr Buswell said the additional dwellings would boost social housing stock and relieve pressure on the waiting list.

“Creating units for seniors will help free up larger homes, which families on the waiting list can then move into,” he said.

“Across the South-West region there are currently 251 homes planned for completion by early 2011, including 49 which are already under way.

“Across the State we plan to create 20,000 new affordable dwellings in Western Australia by 2020.”

Access Housing, a not-for-profit housing organisation, will manage 40 of the homes in Bunbury.

The $60million is drawn from WA’s $550million share of the $5.638billion Commonwealth Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan and $40million share of the Social Housing National Partnerships agreement funding, as well as the $146million State Government Stimulus Package.

Across Stage One and Stage Two of the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan, a total of $550million will be spent in WA to construct almost 2,000 new homes.

Minister's office - 9222 9111

New social housing stock for South-West communities

State Government Housing funding

Suburb	No. Dwellings
Bunbury	8
Busselton	14
Carey Park	2
Collie	6
Dalyellup	11
Total	41

Social Housing National Partnership Agreement (Commonwealth)

Suburb	No. Dwellings
Bunbury	32

Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan Stage 1 (Commonwealth)

Suburb	No. Dwellings
Collie	1
Dalyellup	21
Withers	4
Margaret River	5
Total	31

Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan Stage 2 (Commonwealth)

Suburb		No. Dwellings
Australind	7
Busselton	12
Margaret River	15
Bunbury	14
Dalyellup	131
Total	179

Note: These locations, numbers and funding sources are current as at October 26, 2009 but are subject to change.

Date: 29/10/2009

Minister: Buswell

Portfolio: Housing and Works

Region: All

Building starts on 100th home for government workers in the regions

Antartis, Jill — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:13:27 GMT

Content:

Construction has started on the 100th home for government employees just eight months after the State Government announced that Royalties for the Regions would fund 400 new dwellings for teachers, police officers and other staff in regional locations.

The new brick and tile three-bedroom home in Wagin will be the 100th built for government employees from the $200million Royalties for Regions ‘Housing Our Workforce’ funding.

The three-bedroom home is one of two homes to be built in Wagin under the scheme by local builder Trevor Parsons and both will be ready to house either a police officer or a teacher in the area by May 2010.

Construction has started on Government Regional Officers Housing (GROH) dwellings across the State with completion of the first house funded by the scheme expected in the coming months.

Housing and Works Minister Troy Buswell said the 100th home was a great milestone for the program and that the scheme was on target to build 400 new government employee homes over two years.

“The start of building on the 100th home is excellent progress and means that we are well on the way to providing additional housing to crucial workers such as police and teachers in regional areas,” Mr Buswell said.

“The community is getting much-needed new housing for key workers, taxpayers are getting value for money and we’re able to keep jobs in the building industry.”

Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls said the new housing showed the Royalties for the Regions program was delivering direct benefits to country people.

“Key government workers such as teachers, police and child protection officers play an essential role in country communities and good housing is critical to attract and retain the best people,” he said.

Mr Grylls said that GROH homes built under the Royalties for the Regions program would be established in the regional areas of greatest need.

In the Kimberley, 45 dwellings will be built through Broome, Derby, Fitzroy Crossing, Kununurra, Warmun and Wyndham.

Work on construction of the homes started in 2008 and, as at September 1, 2009, a total of $51.4million had been committed. Homes are either pre-fabricated in Perth and shipped to the regions or built through a tender or expression-of-interest process.

In the Pilbara, 33 new homes will be built across Karratha, Newman, Port Hedland and Tom Price.

The Great Southern will benefit from seven new dwellings, the Goldfields 12, the Mid-West and Gascoyne two, and the Wheatbelt 12.

All will house government workers across a variety of agencies including fisheries, police, education and child protection.

NOTE: A map showing the location of the first 100 GROH homes funded through Royalties for Regions Housing Our Workforce is attached.

Housing and Works Minister’s office - 9222 9111

Regional Development Minister’s office - 9213 7000

Date: 28/10/2009

Minister: Buswell;Grylls

Portfolio: Housing and Works;Regional Development

Region: All

Attachments: http://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Lists/Statements/Attachments/132695/100GROHmap.pdf

Antisocial behaviour intervention pilot extended

Antartis, Jill — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:41:02 GMT

Content:

An intervention scheme for antisocial behaviour in government housing will be extended by three months after early positive results.

Housing and Works Minister Troy Buswell said the pilot scheme, which began in June 2009, provides specialised support to highly disruptive or antisocial social tenants to end cycles of poor behaviour.

“We’ve seen remarkable turnaround from the majority of people involved in this pilot including tenants who were almost facing eviction and neighbours who were at their wits end in having to deal with them,” Mr Buswell said.

“Protecting the safety and welfare of all social housing tenants while trying to ensure that disruptive tenants don’t end up on the street is a major challenge.

“This pilot scheme has had very encouraging results and I will consider expanding it further in the new year.”

The Antisocial Behaviour Intervention Team identified 16 social housing tenants in metropolitan Perth who had been at the centre of ongoing or escalating disruptive behaviour to participate in the pilot program.

Individual case workers were allocated to each case and met with the tenants, their families and neighbours to identify underlying issues contributing to the poor behaviour and outline the consequences if it continued.

Tenants were referred to support services and visited by the same case workers at least once a week for about six weeks. During this time, the team monitored the tenant’s behaviour, their engagement with support services and met with the neighbouring tenants.

14 tenants finished the program while two failed to engage and were evicted.

Only two tenants have generated complaints since finishing the pilot and neighbours have reported being ‘generally satisfied’ since the intervention team’s involvement.

The scheme will be extended for three months across summer - the traditional peak for disruptive behaviour - through to January 2010.

Minister's office - 9222 9111

CASE STUDY:

Tenant ‘Jane’ was referred to the pilot after being the subject of numerous complaints. After a meeting with her case worker, it emerged that Jane had family and financial issues a history of doctor shopping to support her prescription drug dependency.

Case worker referred her to family support service and to mental health service for drug dependence support. Meeting also arranged with Centrelink to discuss income management strategies to reduce financial stress. Intervention identified that two family members were staying at the tenants home causing over-crowding and contributing to the poor behaviour.

Support provided to tenant to move them out of the dwelling. Neighbours report being satisfied with the changes in the tenancy. No further complaints received.

Date: 27/10/2009

Minister: Buswell

Portfolio: Housing and Works

Region: All

Landport.com.au launched as one-stop real estate portal

Antartis, Jill — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:24:01 GMT

Content:

Housing and Works Minister Troy Buswell today launched a ‘one-stop’ shop for State Government affordable land releases and joint venture land developments with the unveiling of Landport.com.au

The portal provides details on more than 20 developments State-wide, including the lot size and cost of the Department of Housing’s stand-alone releases and links to joint venture partners’ websites.

The website will allow potential buyers to get detailed information on these developments and calculate mortgage repayments and stamp duty.

Mr Buswell said previously there had been no central forum for people looking for affordable land or house-and-land combinations.

“With Landport we’ve made it easy for those people while showcasing the department’s work in providing affordable land,” he said.

“The majority of the department’s land developments are joint ventures with the private sector but many people don’t realise we are a partner in many popular land releases.”

Department of Housing land sales include Australind, Belgravia Central and Seville Grove while joint ventures include Banksia Grove, Butler, Meve and Seacrest in Geraldton.

Since the first joint venture arrangement in 1992, the program has been responsible for the development of more than 17,500 lots. The bulk of these are in the ‘affordable range’ with strong appeal to the first-home-buyers market.

The website (http://www.landport.com.au) also has information on home ownership, the First Homeowners Grant, future developments and related issues for people looking to buy land and build a home.

Minister's office - 9222 9111

Date: 13/10/2009

Minister: Buswell

Portfolio: Housing and Works

Region: All

Government looks to future of affordable housing with Housing 2020 plan

Antartis, Jill — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:19:37 GMT

Content:

Housing and Works Minister Troy Buswell today released the Social Housing Taskforce report as well as an accompanying future directions blueprint.

Mr Buswell invited public comment to inform the development of a long-term State affordable housing strategy.

The Minister said the public housing system has been a neglected area of public policy for too long and it was time for an ambitious and innovative long-term plan.

“While the State and Federal governments are working in partnership to substantially increase Western Australian social housing stock over the next two years, we need a long-term solution to the shortage of affordable housing,” he said.

“It is clear that the housing system in its current form does not have the capacity to address the growing need of low to moderate income households.

“We need to look at a suite of initiatives to harness the co-production capacity of the public, private and community sectors to finance, develop and manage a sustainable affordable housing system.”

The Liberal-National Government established The Social Housing Taskforce in last December to review the State’s social housing system and advise on how to improve and expand the supply of housing.

The taskforce made 56 recommendations in the ‘More than a Roof and Four Walls’ report and these form the basis of the ‘Housing 2020: Future Directions for Affordable Housing’ paper, the initial blueprint for a State Affordable Housing Strategy.

The four key principles Housing 2020 is based on are:

reform of the provision of public housing to focus on helping people when they need it rather than a ‘public house for life’ welfare solution
promoting housing growth through collaboration with community not-for-profit organisations and the private sector
increasing supply through a range of land and housing options
improving opportunities and support for people to move between different housing tenures as their circumstances change.

“Housing 2020 provides us with a progressive yet pragmatic way forward and will require strong links between State agencies as well as between government, private and community housing sectors,” Mr Buswell said.

“I’m very keen to see reform of the public housing waiting list by implementing a needs register which would involve the assessment of people’s situations in order to link them to a number of housing options which suit their needs.

“People do have diverse needs and it’s important that we expand the range of housing options on offer, which may include incentives such as rent subsidies to enable people to move out of the social housing sector and into the private rental market.

“One of the more challenging areas for us to work on is attracting new capital investment - the Social Housing Taskforce suggested that there is potential to attract large scale private investment in affordable housing if the right parameters can be established and the right partners involved.

“The community housing sector will have an increasingly important role to play in the future, and ultimately a re-energised community housing sector supported by significant private investment will help to increase the level of affordable housing in WA.”

The Minister urged those working in the field or with experience with social housing issues to provide feedback on the documents.

“While a small number of the taskforce recommendations are either not suitable or realistic, like the planning reform that will allow for blanket subdivision of lots or the suggestion that home owner-occupiers rent out their spare rooms, the documents I’m releasing today are very much open to public comment,” he said.

“The ultimate goal of this Government is to allow all Western Australians to obtain secure affordable housing, and I welcome all practical suggestions on how this can be best achieved.”

Copies of the taskforce report and Housing 2020 are available from the Department of Housing website at http://www.housing.wa.gov.au or phone 9222 4666.

Submissions are open until December 4.

Minister's office - 9222 9111

Date: 6/10/2009

Minister: Buswell

Portfolio: Housing and Works

Region: All

No decision made on pensioner rent increases beyond September 2010

Antartis, Jill — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:51:24 GMT

Content:

Housing and Works Minister Troy Buswell today said that the State Government will fulfil its commitment to delay increasing public housing rents for pensioners for twelve months, following the increase to the aged pension this month.

“In May this year, the Prime Minister wrote to all Premiers (or Chief Ministers)requesting that the States and Territories not adjust rent setting policies to ensure pensioners maintained the full benefit of the Commonwealth’s increase in pensions,” Mr Buswell said.

“Through the Council of Australian Federation (CAF), States agreed to delay any increases to social housing rents for aged pension recipients until September 20, 2010.

“Last week the Federal Government indicated they would like States to extend this quarantine period beyond the 12 months to which we have already committed.”

The Minister said Western Australian pensioners in public housing pay 23.5 per cent to 25 per cent of assessable income on rent with all pension supplements being non-assessable.

“While acknowledging that pensioners deserve additional assistance, extending this commitment in perpetuity has broader implications in a number of areas; including forgone revenue which the State Government relies on to subsidise its social housing program and to provide for the cost of maintaining public housing stock,” he said.

“It also raises an important question about equity for pensioners who reside in private rentals and community housing who will not be given the same benefits as those who live in public housing.

“The State Government will continue negotiation with the Commonwealth and other States and remains committed to no increases in rent for public housing tenants on pensions until September 2010.”

Minister's office - 9222 9111

Date: 29/09/2009

Minister: Buswell

Portfolio: Housing and Works

Region: All