Draft Social and Affordable Housing Strategy

Background

Escalating housing costs relative to incomes are resulting in increased levels of rental stress, mortgage stress, displacement and homelessness. This trend has led to the City of Kingston, along with many other councils, exploring ways to facilitate an increase in the supply of social and affordable housing within their municipalities.

What is social and affordable housing?

The term affordable housing refers to housing that is available to very low and low-income households, to rent or own for less than 30% of the household’s income.

Social housing forms part of affordable housing and typically refers to housing that is owned by Victorian Government or a not-for-profit Registered Housing Agency and made available at affordable rents for eligible households. This form of housing generally addresses those households with the highest needs and a range of those households who receive various assistance or support (for example rental assistance).

Housing stress within the City of Kingston

It is estimated within the City of Kingston that:

• 7.7% of households in Kingston experience mortgage stress
• 8% of households in Kingston experience rental stress
• 41% of households experiencing stress are single households
• Existing social (including public) housing dwellings make up only 2% of households
• 6,175 dwellings needed to address overall demand for social and affordable housing.

The Draft Social and Affordable Housing Strategy

Last year a Draft Social and Affordable Housing Discussion Paper was developed. This paper provided background information to assist Council to understand the roles it can play in the delivery of social and affordable housing and recent reforms to the State legislative framework and the amendments to the Planning and Environment Act 1987. Feedback received from the consultation on the draft discussion paper has helped inform the draft strategy.

The draft strategy discusses social and affordable housing in Kingston and sets out a range of strategies and actions that Council can pursue to assist households in Kingston affected by the lack of affordable accommodation.

The draft strategy sets out a four-pillar strategy to increase the supply of social and affordable housing in Kingston. The pillars include:
• Regulation
• Facilitation and partnership
• Direct investment
• Advocacy.

Have your say

We want to know what you think of the Draft Social and Affordable Housing Strategy. You can share your views by:

• Taking part in our online survey below
• Make a further submission by emailing strategic.planning@kingston.vic.gov.au or mailing PO Box 1000, Mentone 3194.

Contact us

If you have any questions about the project, contact the project team at strategic.planning@kingston.vic.gov.au, phone 9581 4713, or mail to PO Box 1000, Mentone VIC 3194. If you require the Translating and Interpreting Service please contact 131 450.