We endorse the submissions written by Defend and Extend Public Housing Australia (DEAPHA), both of which can be read here if you scroll back.
As always FOPHV keeps alerting the public to the deliberately misleading language.'Public Housing' and 'Community Housing'are collectively and obfuscatingly referred to as 'Social Housing'.
Don't buy into this! It is the language of privatisation.
The biggest threat to the future survival of Public Housing is its conversion( management and/or titles )to so-called "Community Housing" aka "Social Housing". The gifting of billions of dollars of public money and lucrative public land to the Community / Social Housing businesses is truly scandalous.
Furthermore entire public housing estates (100% public assets) are being demolished under the guise of 'renewal' and replaced with private "Social Housing."
PRIVATISATION BY STEALTH.
Want to get involved? Contact us directly via our facebook page
www.facebook.com/FOPHVIC
or housinghumanrights@gmail.com
Thankyou
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FRIENDS OF PUBLIC HOUSING VICTORIA SUBMISSION - TEN YEAR SOCIAL AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING STRATEGY FOR VICTORIA.
Friends of Public Housing supports Defend and Extend Public Housing Australia's submission overall. We believe that building public housing is at present the overriding priority for housing policy and public assets - money and land - should not be diverted from it to inferior alternatives such as community/social housing.
Public housing is well known to be by far the most effective solution to homelessness. It is also the most effective straightforward and transparent solution to housing stress in general, both by direct provision and by the knock-on effect it has in holding down private rents and house prices.
By a historical accident public housing in Melbourne is concentrated in what are now expensive areas. This is in our view a happy accident, it has helped to prevent Melbourne from being economically ghettoized.
The opposition to public housing is essentially ideological. Governments should accept that advanced complex societies cannot leave housing to the market. Nowhere in the world are housing needs acceptably supplied by the private market. This is an inconvenient truth for those who hold currently fashionable economic prejudices of course. This refusal to engage with reality has led governments to think of public housing as something that properly speaking should not be necessary, and that providing it should be seen as charity to the disadvantaged rather than a core government responsibility like public roads, schools or hospitals. Providing public housing does help the disadvantaged of course, and of course that is the current priority. But the aim of public housing should not be solely to provide a landlord of last resort to the homeless and other severely disadvantaged but for public housing to be an accepted and non stigmatised part of the housing mix.
Community lawyers have stated there are 'clear and troubling trends' with community housing and their 'tenancies are not designed to be sustainable'. It seems that the government in its effort to relinquish its responsibilities to the private sector is being deliberately blind to the failures, already apparent, of community /social housing.
We do not see that there is any purpose in government funding "community" housing while money is needed for extending public housing. (The interest in community/social housing is driven by the same ideological preconceptions that led to the Covid security outsourcing debacle!)
The failure of NRAS, which was a waste of taxpayers money and provided no long-term solution to the housing crisis, should not be repeated. We are concerned that the provision of 'affordable housing' might employ the same NRAS tactics under a different name. NRAS was a cash cow for developers of course, but was short sighted policy from the point of the community and a failure on behalf of the government.
All the language of policy makers tends to support the view that the government has essentially made up its mind that the solution for Victoria's housing problems lies in privatisation. We urge the government to rethink this position which is not evidence based. For example for a Housing policy to admit that it will provide no solution to rough sleepers is extraordinary. Surely housing all Victorians should be a top priority. This supports our point that the homeless will always be overlooked by community/social housing because homeless people are not 'market viable'.
More generally a cohesive functioning and well-integrated society, to which housing is fundamental, can not be left to market forces.
Friends of Public Housing Victoria
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