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The federal and NSW governments have agreed on a further recovery package for the state’s flood-affected communities that will allocate funds for social housing and Aboriginal housing solutions.
A total of $168 million will be allocated to the Land and Housing Corporation to deliver urgent social housing solutions and replace social housing lost during the floods. The state government will fund new infrastructure, while the Commonwealth will co-fund the cost to repair damage to existing social housing.
The two governments will split the cost of providing $70 million to deliver new housing solutions for Aboriginal communities, such as those who have been displaced from Cabbage Tree Island.
The Commonwealth will also contribute $56.25 million for the NSW Back Home program to support damaged dwellings within the seven Northern Rivers local government areas and the Hawkesbury LGA.
It’s part of a package comprising more than $850 million that also includes $312.5 million to rebuild the road networks in flood-affected areas, particularly the Northern Rivers.
$100 million in funding will also be split 50/50 by the state and federal government for the repair and reconstruction of community, arts and cultural infrastructure such as libraries, youth and senior citizens facilities, playing fields and courts, playgrounds and parks.
Other funding will go towards the rehabilitation of wetlands and riverbank sites, the rebuilding and construction of Aboriginal community infrastructure, and urgent repairs to flood-damaged levees.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison noted this raft of federal measures came in addition to $1.4 billion already spent on recovery from the recent floods.
“These further commitments will help set up the longer-term recovery and future resilience of communities in northern NSW and western Sydney,” Mr Morrison said.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet assured that more help was on the way.
“This isn’t the start and it won’t be the end of the assistance our governments are delivering for the clean-up, recovery and future reconstruction of these communities,” Mr Perrottet said.
The funds for social housing in NSW’s flood-impacted zones have been welcomed by communities, but on a larger scale, organisations such as the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) have noted that a larger commitment is needed for sustained social housing construction in the long-term, and across the country at large.
AHURI’s recent report looking at Australia’s response to housing during the COVID-19 pandemic noted that since the onset of COVID-19, the building of social housing “has been an important source of economic stimulus and re-investment in housing infrastructure, particularly in Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia”.
But, there’s currently no commitment from the national government for sustained low-cost rental housebuilding past 2025, which the organisation says is starkly at odds with Australia’s peers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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