A report released today by the Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare on community housing shows that community housing is
playing an important role in providing appropriate and affordable
housing to tenants whose needs cannot be met by the private rental
market , and that most tenants are happy with their
accommodation.
The report Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement national
data reports 2004-05: CSHA community housing, shows that there
were approximately 28,300 households living in community housing at
30 June 2005.
About 85% of tenants living in community housing said they were
either 'very satisfied' or 'satisfied' with the services provided
by their community housing organisation.
Community housing is a relatively small component of the social
housing sector in Australia, representing approximately 8% of all
public and community housing dwellings provided under the
Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement. However, it meets an
important need in terms of the wide range of support community
housing organisations offer to their tenants explained David Wilson
of the Institute's Housing Assistance Unit.
In 2004-05, 31% of community housing organisations offered
information, advice and referral to tenants, with around one in
five offering daily living support, personal support and/or
community living support. Training and employment support were
offered by 18% of community housing organisations, while 12%
offered support for children, families and carers, and 10% offered
financial and material assistance.
'The low income population groups in community housing that may
experience difficulty in accessing the private rental market
include: households containing a member with a disability (27%);
households from a non-English speaking background (15%); households
with a principal tenant aged 75 years or more (9%); with a
principal tenant aged 24 years or less (7%) and Indigenous
households (7%).
Of the 8,793 new households allocated to community housing from
1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005, 2,720 were made to Indigenous
households representing 31% of all new allocations.
The majority (66%) of CSHA community housing was located in
major cities with 20% in inner regional areas and 11% were in outer
regional areas. The remaining 3% were in remote and very remote
areas.
'In addition to CSHA community housing programs there are other
programs that provide assistance to community housing tenants.
These often provide assistance to specific groups such as
Indigenous and homeless people.
'Community housing is only part of the range of housing
assistance provided by the CSHA and other areas of assistance such
as home purchase assistance, public housing and crisis
accommodation provide other coverage,' Mr Wilson said.
25 January 2006
Further information: David Wilson, AIHW tel. 02
6244 1202
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of Commonwealth-State Housing
Agreement national data reports 2004-05: CSHA community
housing.