Two of Canberra’s respected housing and community service organisations were today announced as part of the Common Ground Canberra team.

Minister for Housing Shane Rattenbury said that Northside Community Service had won the tender to provide services to residents of the Common Ground community while Argyle Community Housing had secured the role of tenancy manager.

“Having organisations such as the Northside Community Service and Argyle Community Housing as part of this landmark project is great news for Canberra,” Mr Rattenbury said.

“Northside brings a significant amount of experience in supporting vulnerable people while Argyle is a large national provider of community housing with an excellent reputation in its field.”

Mr Rattenbury said that having the two organisations on board at an early stage would ensure they had input into the design of the site and the suite of support offered to residents.

Mr Rattenbury also said that the ACT Government had taken another step forward in the development with lodgement of the development application this week. It is anticipated that construction of Common Ground will completed by late 2014.

The ACT Government allocated more than $7.5 million towards the development of Common Ground in the 2013-14 ACT Budget. The project was a key item in the Labor-Greens Parliamentary Agreement signed in 2012.

The site will comprise 40 homes, half of which will provide housing for long-term homeless Canberrans and the remainder as an affordable housing option.

It will also include services and supports that are designed to assist people to break out of the cycle of homelessness and sustain tenancies over the long term.

“Canberra’s Common Ground will provide an example that, as a community working together, we can really address entrenched social and economic disadvantage,” said Mr Rattenbury.