Now that the federal election is over…

It is finally possible to write now the anxiety of the past couple of months has passed.

Since Labor decided Kevin Rudd no longer had their confidence as Prime Minister there has been a question mark over support for some of the causes he championed, particularly the issues of homelessness and affordable housing.

Whilst we have confidence in the views of Minister for Housing, Tanya Plibersek, and the Treasurer Wayne Swan, both of whom have consistently championed affordable housing, the views of Prime Minister Julia Gillard are unclear – and the depth of the problem requires a P.M.’s imprimatur to produce the sustained process required to address the scale of the problem.

A key post-election concern is the future of Indigenous housing. Extensive commitment and funding from the Commonwealth is required to address the extent of Indigenous housing need.

National Shelter ran a very engaging forum on Indigenous housing in August. Over 30 delegates from every state and territory (excepting Victoria) attended including state Shelter reps. Held over two days in Brisbane, the forum looked at the issues and began the first national conversation about Indigenous housing, involving those affected and involved since ATSIC. Whilst there has been a great deal of attention given to remote Indigenous housing by various governments, our process was intent on also looking at urban and regional Indigenous housing. Over 75% of Indigenous people live in non-remote areas of Australia, and we need to be addressing the massive housing issues confronting them.

With an emphasis on improved housing outcomes and enhanced self determination, the forum called for:

· more resources to be urgently directed to producing 20,000 dwellings identified by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare as being required to meet the level of Indigenous housing need;

· support for Indigenous community housing providers to play a central role in meeting this need;

· the involvement of Indigenous communities in all aspects of the response, from high level policy to on-the-ground delivery and management;

· mainstream government and community providers to engage with Indigenous communities to develop appropriate housing and support in order to address issues of overcrowding and sustain tenancies;

· programs to be developed to support Indigenous people to access market housing, including home ownership and private rental; and

· the establishment of an Indigenous owned and controlled National Indigenous Housing body

The policy platform issued by National Shelter following the forum is available on the National Shelter website: www.shelter.org.au.

We remain part of the Affordable Housing Summit Group and on August 10, we joined with the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Council of Social Service, the Community Housing Federation of Australia and Homelessness Australia in forming the Community Organisations Housing Alliance (COHA), in order to bolster the community policy and lobbying process on housing. COHA issued a post-election housing statement on September 3, which outlined its key priorities:

·  appoint a Commonwealth Minister for Housing and Residential Development at Cabinet level with his or her own separate department;

· boost the National Affordable Housing Agreement with an extra $1 billion per year to help provide at least 200,000 affordable rental dwellings by 2020; and

· link infrastructure development with affordable housing, in regional and urban communities, including transport and infrastructure related to mining and resource development.

The policy statement is available from the National Shelter website. 

Adrian Pisarski, Chairperson, National Shelter­