Following on from this morning’s story on the woeful state of housing affordability (as opposed to house affordability) in Canberra the Greens have announced how they’d help low income renters, who surely should be the focus of policy making rather than giving a discount house to a handful of lottery winners.
“The ACT Government is due to release the next Affordable Housing Action Plan, which must focus on those in the most long term housing stress – private rental low income households.
“The Action Plan needs to use the 30/40 rule to measure the state of housing affordability in the ACT – measuring how many people spend more than 30% of their income on housing while earning in the bottom 40% income range.
“I expect part of the Action Plan will require the ACT Government to commit to ongoing investment in public housing. It is crucial that we maintain public housing so that people who can’t afford private rentals are able to access housing.
“If we don’t maintain public housing, there will be increased pressure on the already limited number of affordable properties for people on low incomes.
“The Government must also look to amend minimum requirements for new housing, in particular by decreasing the minimum size of an apartment or the number of car spaces required. Car spaces can add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of new constructions.
“We need policies that ensure the basics are provided and encouraging developers to build affordable properties for people in housing stress,” said Ms Bresnan.