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Speaker 1: There is an issue which has been bubbling along for

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Speaker 1: some time, and that is housing. Now. Earlier in the week,

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Speaker 1: we learned that some Southerners and even some international purchases

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Speaker 1: are snapping up homes in the Northern Territory. But we

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Speaker 1: also know that the rental market is very tight. So

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Speaker 1: what kind of impact does that have? More broadly, when

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Speaker 1: you look at what is available to those facing housing stress. Well,

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Speaker 1: joining me in the studio is the CEO of Somerville

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Speaker 1: Community Services, lawsome Broad.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie, good to see you. Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, great to have you in the studio now, Lawson,

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Speaker 1: I know that Somerville does have programs which provide support

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Speaker 1: for families and also individuals who are maybe experiencing homelessness

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Speaker 1: or who are at risk of homelessness. How are we

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Speaker 1: going in the Northern Territory at the moment when you

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Speaker 1: talk about housing and people being able to access it, Well, what.

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Speaker 3: We know absolutely, Katie, is that for many families, many

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Speaker 3: households across the Northern Territory, their budgets are being crippled

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Speaker 3: by the cost of how So the stats tell us

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Speaker 3: that story, renters tell us that story. What we know

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Speaker 3: is that current vacancy rates sit well below two percent

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Speaker 3: in real terms. What that tells us is that on

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Speaker 3: any day of the week, there are more people looking

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Speaker 3: for houses than there are houses on the market. That's unsustainable,

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Speaker 3: that's basic supply and demand, and what that means is

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Speaker 3: that the cost of housing goes up. Unfortunately, we are

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Speaker 3: seeing in small pockets, and they are small pockets. This

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Speaker 3: is not across the board, but we are seeing small

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Speaker 3: pockets of landlords who are frankly extortionate and profit hearing

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Speaker 3: you would have seen it, you would have heard it.

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Speaker 3: I've certainly seen it and heard it where rents are

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Speaker 3: being ratcheted up one hundred dollars two hundred dollars a week.

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Speaker 3: That is crippling household budgets.

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Speaker 2: You know, what kind of thing are you hearing?

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Speaker 1: Sort of on the front line, because I know that

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Speaker 1: some of them, obviously there would be people coming to

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Speaker 1: you who are in rental stress, but are also in

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Speaker 1: stress more generally, who are doing it tough, and COVID

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Speaker 1: has exast spiraated that. I would imagine what are you hearing,

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Speaker 1: you know, in your offices each and every day from

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Speaker 1: people coming in to seek support from Somerville, because I

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Speaker 1: would imagine it's you know, it's not, it's it's very

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Speaker 1: often I'm assuming everyday Territorians who have not been in

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Speaker 1: this situation before.

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Speaker 3: We're talking about working families, we're talking about working couples.

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Speaker 3: So the types of stories we're seeing is we're hearing

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Speaker 3: about couples who used to be able to live on

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Speaker 3: their own in their own house having to move in

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Speaker 3: with other couples. That puts a lot of strain on relationships.

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Speaker 3: We are seeing relationship breakdowns, We are seeing budgets fall apart,

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Speaker 3: and people who wouldn't ordinarily need extra assistance coming to

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Speaker 3: us to make ends meet.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that is I mean, it's it's hard to hear.

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Speaker 1: I know, even here at MIX, we've had people call

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Speaker 1: through who said that they are really they really struggled

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Speaker 1: to find rental properties, they're really struggling to get into homes.

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Speaker 1: But I think the other part of it as well

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Speaker 1: is it's not just like there's not just people struggling

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Speaker 1: to get into the rental market or into the housing market,

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Speaker 1: but there is also obviously your public housing. The demand

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Speaker 1: on public housing is high. But then when you talk

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Speaker 1: about affordable housing and that's something that you actually wrote

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Speaker 1: about on the weekend in the Sunday Territorium.

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Speaker 2: Where are we ash with this.

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Speaker 3: Great question, Katie? So you're right, the housing market is big.

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Speaker 3: There's private rentals, there's public housing at the other end,

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Speaker 3: there's transitional accommodation in the middle. But one important piece

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Speaker 3: of that puzzle is affordable housing and community housing. So,

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Speaker 3: in simple terms, what that is, I want to make

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Speaker 3: clear upfront. Community housing is not public housing. The way

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Speaker 3: that community housing is established is essentially a state or

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Speaker 3: territory government transitions bulk stock from its own reserves to

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Speaker 3: a community housing provide. Now, what that community housing provider

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Speaker 3: does is that they are then able to rent that

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Speaker 3: accommodation to people that meet certain thresholds at below market rents.

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Speaker 3: This is it's no silver bullet, but it is definitely

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Speaker 3: an important piece of solving that housing affordability question. So

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Speaker 3: there's a couple of advantages there. One of those is

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Speaker 3: that there is extra revenue available to help subsidize that accommodation.

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Speaker 3: So that's called commonwealth rent assistance. The way it works

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Speaker 3: is essentially, if you meet certain criteria, you get additional

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Speaker 3: money to help cover the cost of rent. So as

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Speaker 3: an example, if you are a couple with one or

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Speaker 3: two children, you meet the various thresholds to if you

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Speaker 3: are paying four hundred and fifty bucks a week for rent,

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Speaker 3: you get one hundred and sixty five dollars a week

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Speaker 3: tax free that goes directly to to your rent. That

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Speaker 3: makes an enormous difference to that family budget.

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Speaker 2: Life changing. I would say for some people, and you.

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Speaker 1: Know where you're talking, you're actually talking about helping people

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Speaker 1: to you know, to stay in a home to avoid

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Speaker 1: then needing to try and get into the public housing

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Speaker 1: system or leaving the Northern Terriory.

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Speaker 3: It keeps relationships together, it keeps people here, because we

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Speaker 3: do see people leaving the Northern Territory. We do see

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Speaker 3: people ending up in caravan parks because they can't get

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Speaker 3: into the private rental market.

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Speaker 1: Awson, how tough would you say? Well, at what point

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Speaker 1: do you think we're in in the Northern Territory at

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Speaker 1: the moment when you talk about the number of people

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Speaker 1: who would like to be able to access something like

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Speaker 1: that affordable or community housing.

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Speaker 3: I would say that we are For many, they are

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Speaker 3: at crisis point. They are desperate for a solution, right

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Speaker 3: now there's a lot of work on a bit, there's

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Speaker 3: a bit of money flowing in the economy. This doesn't

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Speaker 3: affect everyone, but for some families this is absolute a

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Speaker 3: crisis point. But what this means is that even though

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Speaker 3: housing might be affordable for many, the cost of housing

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Speaker 3: is going up. That has a broader impact on the

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Speaker 3: economy because if we are seeing a lot of interstate

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Speaker 3: buyers here, that means money leaving the territory not staying here.

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Speaker 3: That means money leaving the territory, not being spent on

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Speaker 3: local contractors, not being spent in local shops.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right, and that's the last thing that

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Speaker 1: we want happening. And we know that, you know, in

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Speaker 1: different ways. I suppose the population sort of changed a

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Speaker 1: little bit as a result of COVID, But if there

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Speaker 1: isn't places for people to live, you know, even when

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Speaker 1: you talk about workforces coming across to the territory, if

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Speaker 1: we don't have enough homes for rent, homes for sale,

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Speaker 1: and then when you go to you know, to the

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Speaker 1: community housing level and the affordable housing level, it is

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Speaker 1: it's a difficult situation that many people are finding themselves in.

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Speaker 3: Really challenging, really challenging, and I guess there's limited leavers

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Speaker 3: to be able to affect that. But one of those

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Speaker 3: is establishing our community housing sector, and we know that

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Speaker 3: this government made a commitment, a significant commitment to bring

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Speaker 3: that to life in twenty sixteen. So that was to

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Speaker 3: transfer seven hundred and fifty dwellings out of its own

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Speaker 3: stock to community housing providers. They were praised for that

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Speaker 3: at the time. It was a good commitment that should

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Speaker 3: be supported. Unfortunately, governments politicians on their own can't bring

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Speaker 3: a commitment like that to life. So a willing government

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Speaker 3: has made that commitment. At the other end, we see

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Speaker 3: struggling renters and we have willing providers to be able

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Speaker 3: to bring that to life. In the middle, we have

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Speaker 3: the public service. In the middle, we have government departments.

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Speaker 3: They are the arms and legs of our politicians. Our

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Speaker 3: politicians rely on those people to bring those commitments to life. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 3: that commitment that got a lot of praise at the

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Speaker 3: time hasn't got any legs, not in one year, not

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Speaker 3: in two years, hasn't got any legs in five years.

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Speaker 2: Lawson, you sound pretty exasperated by it.

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Speaker 1: I'm assuming you would be because you are like you're

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Speaker 1: at the front line speaking to people who are really

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Speaker 1: struggling right now.

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Speaker 3: It's I and it's not just me. Across the sector

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Speaker 3: are at the point of acute frustration because we do

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Speaker 3: see it, and we do see it firsthand, and they're

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Speaker 3: painful stories that we're seeing. And I guess it gets

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Speaker 3: to the point where you can do a lot of

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Speaker 3: work behind the scenes, you can have a lot of

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Speaker 3: you can have a lot of meetings, but it gets

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Speaker 3: to the point where, honestly, after five years, that's not

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Speaker 3: good enough.

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Speaker 1: What's your message really for the government today or you know,

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Speaker 1: for well, yeah, for the government when it comes to

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Speaker 1: this housing situation that.

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Speaker 2: A lot of a lot of Territorians are in right.

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Speaker 3: Now, the message is to act. So what we're seeing

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Speaker 3: unfortunate and there is a place for there is a

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Speaker 3: place for strategies doing this. This is a big deal.

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Speaker 3: It's a big move for government. Doing this carefully and

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Speaker 3: getting it right should be the approach that we take.

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Speaker 3: But let me read just a couple of lines for

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Speaker 3: you here. So in twenty sixteen in the Department of

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Speaker 3: Housings and Your Report, it wrote the Department commenced the

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Speaker 3: development of a community housing strategy good thing. The strategy

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Speaker 3: will guide how the Department will work to create opportunities

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Speaker 3: to create the community housing sector and transfer initially up

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Speaker 3: to seven hundred and fifty dwellings to community housing providers

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Speaker 3: in urban areas. Into a meeting earlier in the week

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Speaker 3: with the departments Housing Reform Agenda Meeting and let me

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Speaker 3: read from you from paper from that meeting. The next

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Speaker 3: step in the development of the strategy is to engage

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Speaker 3: a suitably qualified consultancy firm with a high level of

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Speaker 3: expertise and understanding of the community housing sector to undertake

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Speaker 3: economic analysis to inform the structure of the future of

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Speaker 3: future transfer models.

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Speaker 1: How is that where they're at right now, Lawson after

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, that being in the annual report and then

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Speaker 1: all these years later.

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Speaker 3: How is how is that the next step? That's that's

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Speaker 3: the question. So that's why, that's why to me, the

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Speaker 3: message right now is something is better than nothing. Anything

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Speaker 3: is better than nothing. Sure, we need a strategy, but

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Speaker 3: we need action more than we need strategy.

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Speaker 1: Well, even as we're talking, you know, we've got people

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Speaker 1: calling through saying that you know, they've had to vacate

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Speaker 1: their house in Bayview as it was sold, so luckily

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Speaker 1: they found a new rental that rose from five hundred

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Speaker 1: to six hundred and ninety five dollars a week. You know,

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Speaker 1: that's just an example of somebody who can actually hopefully

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Speaker 1: afford to pay their rent.

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Speaker 2: You know, but there's a lot of people struggling.

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Speaker 1: It's not unusual at all, and we're hearing it more

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Speaker 1: and more in this studio and on the phone lines.

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Speaker 1: People are really finding it difficult to stay in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory based on just being able to find a

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Speaker 1: rental property, but then on the cost, and then when

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Speaker 1: you look at families who are maybe doing it a

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Speaker 1: little bit tougher, there's not that step in between, or

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Speaker 1: there doesn't seem to be that step in between at

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Speaker 1: the moment, which I think is what you're talking about.

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Speaker 1: That community in affordable housing.

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Speaker 3: That's exactly what it is, so families can have their

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Speaker 3: own house. When we see families moving in together, when

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Speaker 3: we see overcrowding to that point, that is what leads

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Speaker 3: to relationship tension, That is what leads to unsafe environments,

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Speaker 3: that is what leads to antisocial behavior. There's got to

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Speaker 3: be a solution here. I mean, I guess I guess

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Speaker 3: there are occasions when government kind of wants to take

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Speaker 3: credit for every positive thing in the community. But at

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Speaker 3: the end of the day, it's got to get three

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Speaker 3: things right health, housing and education, and right now housing

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Speaker 3: is crippling us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Lass, and I really appreciate you coming in this morning.

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Speaker 1: I think it divides people with a bit a bit

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Speaker 1: for the idea about some of the things that could

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Speaker 1: be happening and should be happening in the community. But

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Speaker 1: this issue of housing, I think it's one that if

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Speaker 1: we don't try to get on top of sooner rather

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Speaker 1: than later, I think it's going to become much bigger

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Speaker 1: over the next couple of years.

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Speaker 3: Really appreciate your time, Katie, thanks for having us in

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Speaker 3: and thanks for highlighting this important issue anytime.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Lawson Lawson broad there, who is the CEO of some

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Speaker 1: of ill community services.