Our Brave Leader is letting us all know that the first house under the long running land rent scheme has finally been moved into.
Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said the home, one of 1000 being built for rent or sale by CHC Affordable Housing under a deal with the ACT Government, was the first of four CHC rental homes to be delivered in Franklin over the next two months.
CHC would build another 77 affordable rental homes on Land Rent blocks in the nearby suburb of Bonner over the next two years.
The cynical might think this is a cunning wheeze, constrict land supply for the benefit of the baby boomers while having a few lottery winners to make good photo ops and an impression of action to actually reduce the cost of housing.
But Mr Stanhope has taken this opportunity to announce he’s convening a round table!
“I am this week writing to a number of organisations which work with Canberrans on extremely low incomes to examine what more we can do as a community to provide appropriate and affordable housing to those struggling in the private rental market,” Mr Stanhope said today.
“The discovery in recent weeks of a number of possibly illegal and allegedly unsanitary and substandard boarding houses, being run out of suburban residences, has highlighted that while considerable advances have been made in tackling affordability over the past three years, there is always room for fresh ideas and fresh thinking.
“For example, I sometimes ask myself why it is that a city that housed so many of its residents in boarding houses and hostels in its first decades now seems to reject these as legitimate housing options.
“I wonder whether we could be encouraging – and properly regulating – different housing models, particularly for those who don’t seem to be captured or well-served by what’s on offer in our private rental market.
“Do we offer enough options for those who cannot scrape together a bond, those who are in town only temporarily for work, or those confronting sudden and unexpected housing crises?”
It would be nice to see something come of this fresh thinking.