Earlier this week, the NSW Government announced the details of this year’s budget – with Sydney’s bus system scoring a major $139.5 million upgrade, $13.4 billion going towards upgrading healthcare facilities across the state, and a major focus on public housing to address the state’s major housing crisis. The $6.6 billion Building Homes Program will focus on providing affordable housing for the people who need it most and, as the largest ever public housing investment in NSW history, it’s set to be pretty transformative. Here’s what we know so far.
Focusing primarily on meeting the needs of Sydney’s more vulnerable communities, the Building Homes for NSW Program plans to:
- Build 8,400 new public housing abodes (half of which will be dedicated to women and families experiencing domestic violence);
- Fix 33,500 public homes in desperate need of repair;
- Deliver more than 21,000 affordable and market homes across the state; and
- Build affordable rentals for key workers
- The project also aims to address the issue of homelessness in the state, injecting more than half a billion dollars into homelessness services and crisis accommodation.
To facilitate the project, the government aims to leverage surplus government land and public housing construction to undertake the biggest planning reforms in a generation – with aims to build homes around existing infrastructure, and roll out the biggest investment in public housing maintenance to date.
Described by Minister for Housing Rose Jackson as a “once in a generation opportunity”, the project aims to “fix the housing system and create one that is fair and affordable for everyone”. Lofty aims – secured by $6.6 billion in funding. And with Sydney’s housing market recently ranking as the second-least affordable in the world, lord knows we need it.
The funding will see construction begin on 44 sites that have been ID'd by the government as suitable for development, with a focus on building affordable housing close to infrastructure and transport, including the new Sydney Metro.
Let's look at all the numbers: As mentioned, the project is about prioritising the needs of NSW’s most vulnerable communities – with $5.1 billion directed to delivering new public housing, with at least half of the projected 8,400 public homes reserved for victim-survivors of family and domestic violence. The additional homes in the project will be a combination of affordable private homes (proceeds from these sites will be reinvested into new public housing construction) and affordable rental properties for key workers with close, easy access to the communities that they support in a $450 million Key Worker Build-to-Rent Program. To address the issue of homelessness, more than $527.6 million will be directed towards emergency housing and homelessness support services across the state.
Keen to hear more from the about the government's housing plans, from the horse's mouth? Read our interview with NSW Premier Chris Minns here.
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