The role of housing associations in managing lowrent housing

1
The role of housing associations in managing
low-rent housing

• Adam Farrar
• NSW Federation of Housing Associations
• Presentation to affordable housing forum,
  Mollymook, 4 November 2004

2
Overview

• What are housing associations?
• Associations on the South Coast
• A track record in affordable housing
• Managing tenancies
• Working in partnership
• Affordable housing local communities

3
What are housing associations?

• Locally based not-for-profit professional housing
  managers
• Small to medium size businesses managing between
  40 1,000 units of housing
• House a range of households from very low income
  to moderate income from those with special
  support needs to key workers

4
What are housing associations?

• 45 associations across the State
• Associations are independently accredited
• This year they will be covered by a new
  registration system
• Financed through government funding, fee-for
  service management, joint ventures

5
Associations in the South East

• The Housing Trust Illawarra
• Queanbeyan Community Housing
• Shoalhaven Community Housing - Nowra
• Eurabodalla Community Housing Batemans Bay
• Sapphire Coast Tenancy Scheme Bega

6
A track record in affordable housing

• There are a couple of specialist affordable
  housing providers
• But a number have been managing affordable
  housing for ten years
• A number of others have been managing affordable
  housing required by planning instruments on
  behalf of local government
• Major new development initiatives in Victoria

7
Managing tenancies

• Associations are specialist tenancy managers
• Neither councils nor developers are likely to
  want to carry the tenancy management risk
• Associations are increasingly managing housing on
  behalf of other agencies
• Strong expertise in creating sustainable social
  mix amongst tenancies

8
Working in partnership

• Affordable housing is most often developed as a
  partnership between, councils, developers
  housing managers
• Associations are skilled at forming partnerships
  with a range of agencies support providers,
  government, private sector
• Accreditation and publicly available registration
  information provides assurance to partners

9
Affordable housing and local communities

• The main reason for affordable housing is to
  maintain community cohesion
• Many moderate income households will have
  broken work patterns and may need support to stay
  connected
• Housing associations have a track record in
  community development in flexible housing
  management and support