Faith groups are signing up for federal funds to build homes for people in need and fill a gap in the housing market, prompting the federal Government to offer them more cash if they are willing to release unused land. Source: The Age.
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told faith leaders yesterday that they stood to gain a bigger share of a $10 billion federal housing fund if they followed the example of Baptists and other churches by using their land for emergency accommodation.
The proposal is being backed by Faith Housing Australia, chaired by former NSW Liberal cabinet minister Rob Stokes, as a way to build homes on some of the best-located land in major cities and regional centres.
Ms O’Neil set out the offer with a call to replace the common objection to new developments – known as NIMBY for “not in my backyard” – with an approach she called “yes in God’s backyard”, or YIGBY.
The Albanese Government set up the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) after months of objections from the Coalition and the Greens, although it was eventually passed with the Greens’ backing in September last year.
The Government has said at least $500 million a year in interest earned on the fund would be used to help build 30,000 social and affordable homes in the first five years.
Housing Australia chose the first 185 projects to receive funding in September and estimated they would deliver about 13,700 social and affordable homes.
Ms O’Neil said a check of the successful projects in the first round of funding showed 10 per cent came from faith-based groups, with plans to build 1000 homes.
“Your bids in the first round of the HAFF were supported by local parishes who gifted land, like their church’s old car park, because the parishioners believed housing people in need was more important,” she said in a speech to Faith Housing Australia in Sydney.
“Being religious organisations, you were able to crowd in [crowdfund] charitable donations and philanthropy to add to the capital stack – something governments either couldn’t or didn’t match.”
Faith Housing Australia, which includes Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and other faiths, wants its members to double their projects to 20 per cent of the next round of the federal housing fund.
FULL STORY
‘Yes in God’s backyard’: Labor offers cash for church housing (By David Crowe, The Age)
