An otherwise tight NSW budget has found room for record spending on social housing, with billions of dollars to be pumped into building extra homes.
The state government has prioritised putting a roof over people’s heads in Tuesday’s budget, with $6.6 billion in extra funds for social housing and homelessness services.
The affordability and availability of accommodation was the “biggest single pressure facing the people of NSW”, Housing Minister Rose Jackson said.
The largest social housing investment in NSW state government history will be used to fund construction of 8400 social homes, 6200 of them new and the rest knock-down rebuilds.
A $1 billion maintenance blitz will refresh 33,500 others.
At least half of the new homes will be set aside for people fleeing domestic and family violence.
More than 5000 women and children fleeing violence were yet to find a permanent home due to falls in social housing stock since 2011, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said in his budget speech.
“To fix one person’s house, the previous government’s preference was to sell another’s,” he said.
Advocates have urged the government to urgently put more money into social housing after a long-term decline in stocks despite a growing population.
Tuesday’s plan was an admirable attempt to bend a catastrophic trajectory, McKell Institute chief executive Ed Cavanough said.
“If the government failed to take urgent action now, NSW would become an entirely different society within a decade,” he said.
The money means the state and providers can begin confronting the housing crisis, Community Housing Industry Association NSW chief executive Mark Degotardi said.
“With 9000 households on the priority waiting list for social housing, our combined challenge is significant,” he said.
An ongoing government land audit has identified space for 21,000 new homes, with parcels of surplus land available to private sector developers if government agencies Homes NSW and Landcom do not want it.
The land was close to existing public transport and other infrastructure, Mr Mookhey said, in keeping with the government’s separate transport-oriented development policy.
The budget includes $520 million in infrastructure spending to support that policy in eight priority precincts around train stations and metro stops.
A $200 million carrot will also be offered for councils that meet their housing targets after some dug their heels in following a state push to lift the delivery of new homes.
Separately, the government expects to raise about $1.6 billion over four years when it stops indexing land-tax thresholds for investors.
It means more people will be paying the tax as their values increase, but the levy does not apply to primary homes or farms.
The funds are earmarked for the housing crisis, but critics have argued renters will be left worse off as some of the state’s 620,000 landlords face larger tax bills.
The state’s rental taskforce is getting $8.4 million, while $11.8 million will go to the strata and property services commissioner to crack down on dodgy agents.
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This post was originally published on Michael West.