Australia Yearbook - 2001

314 Year Book Australia 2001
Housing assistance
While most Australians are able to house
themselves without government assistance, such
assistance remains important for various
population groups, especially low income earners
and social security recipients. Housing assistance
is provided by the Commonwealth Government
and the State and Territory Governments through
a range of housing and other programs.
Assistance for people with low incomes is
provided through public housing, home purchase
assistance and rent assistance schemes (see the
earlier article Changing tenure status). Assistance
is also provided to community organisations and
local governments for refuges and crisis
accommodation.
The Housing Assistance Act 1996 provides the
legislative basis for the Commonwealth’s provision
of financial assistance to the States and Territories
for housing and related purposes. The Act
authorised the Commonwealth to form and enter
into a Commonwealth State Housing Agreement
(CSHA) with the States and Territories. The 1996
CSHA expired on 30 June 1999. A new CSHA was
agreed and commenced on 1 July 1999. Unlike the
1996 CSHA, it provides for bilateral housing
agreements between the Commonwealth and each
State and Territory. The CSHA sets out the terms
for the provision of housing assistance for rental
housing, home purchase and other specific
housing programs. Details of Commonwealth
assistance provided under the CSHA for 1999–2000
are set out in table 8.19.
The 1999–2003 CSHA includes a subsidiary
National Housing Data Agreement outlining a
commitment to the development and provision
of nationally consistent data. The National
Housing Data Agreement was signed by Housing
Chief Executive Officers in January 2000. The ABS
and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW) are also signatories to the Agreement,
with the AIHW providing secretariat support. The
three schedules to the Agreement identify the
major work areas comprising development of
national minimum data sets, national
performance indicators and national data
definitions and standards.
In 1999–2000, towards implementation of the
three schedules to the Agreement, the AIHW and
the ABS worked with the Commonwealth and the
States and Territories to:
develop a national performance indicator
framework for public and community housing
and undertake data collection for 1999–2000;
advance the development of national
minimum data sets with the establishment of a
national public rental housing data repository
involving the construction of a national data
set based on each jurisdiction’s data; and
develop national data definitions and standards
through drafting of the first national housing
assistance data dictionary to be published
March 2001.
Public housing
Public housing comprises dwellings owned and
managed by State and Territory housing
authorities and which are made available at low
cost to tenants. Rents are generally set at a
maximum of 25% of income, thereby providing
low cost housing to people on low incomes. The
median weekly housing costs for those renting
from a State housing authority in 1997–98 were
$53, compared to $143 for those renting from a
private landlord. Expenditure under the CSHA on
public housing and related assistance was
approximately $1.3b in 1999–2000.
Over recent decades, public housing has been
increasingly targeted towards those most in need.
In 1997–98, 394,507 households (6% of all
households) were living in public housing; of
these, about 78% were in the lowest 40% of the
household income distribution. Government
pensions and benefits were the main source of
income for the majority of households in public
housing.
8.19 COMMONWEALTH STATE HOUSING AGREEMENT, Payments to States—1999–2000
NSW Vic. Qld WA SA Tas. ACT NT
$’000 $’000 $’000 $’000 $’000 $’000 $’000 $’000 $’000
Base Funding 253 020 18 584 138 124 73 232 59 068 22 705 17 394 13 557 762 964
Community Housing Program 21 651 15 905 11 819 6 267 5 054 1 598 1 047 649 63 990
Aboriginal Rental Housing
Program 17 777 3 638 25 227 15 862 8 342 696 — 19 458 91 000
Crisis Accommodation Program 13 417 9 856 7 325 3 884 3 132 990 649 402 39 655
Total 305 865 215 263 182 495 99 245 75 596 25 989 19 090 34 066 957 609
Source: Department of Family and Community Services.
Aust.