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Housing
Social Housing Taskforce
In December 2008, the current Minister for Housing announced the establishment of a new Social Housing Taskforce to review the acute shortage of public housing in Western Australia and to suggest strategies for addressing the problem. In general, the Taskforce was asked to conduct a high-level review of the social housing system and advise on strategies to improve and expand supply. Its primary Terms of Reference involved consideration of:
- National and international models
- How to increase participation of other sectors
- The long-term role of the State
- Strategies to improve the use of public housing stock
- New and innovative funding approaches
- Demand modeling methodologies
- General sector capacity to support new approaches.
At the launch of the Taskforce’s final report, ‘More Than a Roof and Four Walls’ in October 2009, the Minister for Housing also released ‘Housing 2020: Future Directions for Affordable Housing’ which provides an initial blueprint for a State Affordable Housing Strategy. The reforms will be guided by four key principles:
- More effective (limited-term) interventions for more people, rather than a ‘public house for life’ welfare solution
- Stronger long-term partnerships between the public, private and community sectors to finance and deliver housing solutions
- Wider affordable land and housing options outside the public system
- Active (improved) support and interventions to encourage transition to private accommodation.
The reports can be downloaded at the Department of Housing's website.