Collective approach needed for housing affordability in Canberra

This week the ACT government released its discussion paper Towards a New Housing Strategy. 

It’s the first strategy focused on housing affordability in 10 years, when the very first affordable housing action plan was put in place by the Stanhope government. 

It was a policy I worked on, but a decade later the need to refocus our minds to the issue remains ever present and we are all looking to the government to provide the solutions.

There is no doubt that the government must set the policy parameters – and must always take the lead on that.  But in 2017 what we have is a recognition for the first time, that governments can’t do it alone. 

We need a collective approach which brings industry, community and the government together if we are going to make any real progress on providing affordable housing for purchase and for rent, for those who are suffering housing stress and homelessness in our city. 

It is easy to forget that in a city with one of the highest wages in the country and lowest unemployment, that our housing and homelessness services are at breaking point.

We must remember that as a community we all have a responsibility to act.

Is the new strategy put forward by the government the panacea for housing affordability? Of course not.  But what we have is the framework and the first real opportunity to not just point out the problems our growing city faces, but demonstrate that we are all invested in finding solutions.

Adina Cirson is the ACT executive director of the Property Council of Australia