PRINCIPLES
1. Housing is a fundamental human right.
2. The first step to end homelessness is to provide housing.
3.Housing should be safe, secure, and not treated as a speculative commodity.
4. Homelessness is a violation of human rights and inconsistent with a compassionate society.
5. Access to secure, appropriate, and affordable housing is a crucial determinant of health and well-being.
6.Housing should be designed in compliance with Universal Design Principles and be supported by appropriate social services.
7.Governments have an obligation to provide safe, secure and accessible public housing.
8. Safe and secure housing supports social participation and enables access to employment and social services.
9. Access to housing should be free from discrimination.
10. All tiers of government are collectively obligated to ensure supply of housing, located where the people in need live.
11. People experiencing crisis should be provided with immediate and appropriate housing and support services.
12.Tenants in private rental, public and community housing must be supported by legislative safeguards that are regularly reviewed for improvement and include workable provisions for monitoring and enforcement.
13. Owners of all existing rental housing must maintain the safety, liveability, and quality of their properties.
14.The housing needs of all Victorians should be met through the provision of public housing for everyone who needs it.
15. Public housing assets and public land set aside for public housing must be retained in public ownership. Public housing assets must not be privatised, including through leases or licences to private companies.
16. Public land that is suitable for public housing should not be sold.
17. New urban developments should:
a. Be designed to deal with the climate crisis.
b. Be integrated with employment strategies.
c. Facilitate community interaction.
d. Be integrated with public transport; and
e. Have infrastructure to achieve the above.
18. Public participation in the planning, assessment, development, and management of public and community housing is a right and should be facilitated by governments and planning authorities.
19. The housing needs of First Nations people should be met as a matter of urgency as determined by them and should be granted access to adequate, sufficient, secure, well-maintained, safe and culturally appropriate long-term housing, wherever they live.
20. Best-practice environmental design and retrofitting should be implemented in all housing, both new and existing, to minimise the environmental footprint and improve amenity.
21. People must be provided with sufficient and appropriate community infrastructure and open space where they live.
22. Mandatory inclusionary zoning should be implemented for the procurement of public housing.
23. Governments should support innovation and emerging industries for low-to-zero-carbon construction methods.
24. Government must provide a sufficient recurrent budget for ongoing maintenance and refurbishment of public housing.
25. Housing the homeless is a matter of social justice and human decency.
26. Housing should be provided within appropriate and established time limits to prevent long waiting lists for public housing.
27. Housing and services should adopt a holistic approach, seek to reduce harm, and respect the informed choice of a person who decides to remain without a fixed abode. Supportive housing services should not be mandated.
28. Support services should be guaranteed, continuous and flexible.
29. All tenants have a right not to be evicted into homelessness.
30. Tenants must be able to access affordable, transparent, timely and effective dispute resolution processes.
AIMS
General
1. The elimination of homelessness and housing-related poverty.
2. Governments should address the high incidence of homelessness in marginalised communities.
3. Ensure that housing assistance and support is available across all entry points including crisis accommodation and outreach services to eliminate turn-aways and remove the necessity for rough sleeping.
4. Housing that meets the needs of people on low incomes and people with insecure tenures who are at risk of homelessness.
5. A commitment to the provision of unconditional security of housing tenure for people experiencing homelessness.
6. Provide coordinated housing support that facilitates consistent, stable relationships between residents and support workers.
7. Ensure that early intervention programs of support for households or individuals at risk of becoming homeless are adequately resourced to prevent homelessness.
8. Residents in public and community housing should be subject to the same income ratio of income for the calculation of rent payments with no mandatory loadings or surcharges, ensuring every resident is entitled to affordable and stable housing regardless of their provider.
9. Greater diversity in housing to meet the accessibility needs of changing demographics and disadvantaged groups.
10. Improved legal security of tenure and reduced discrimination.
11. Sufficient supply of affordable housing to meet current and emerging needs.
12. Planning practices that increase provision of ecologically sustainable, affordable, and diverse housing stock with increased engagement of local governments in delivering local solutions.
13. Existing subsidies and incentives for property investment should be altered to improve housing affordability across all tenure types.
14. First Nations people to have access to adequate, sufficient, secure, well-maintained, safe and culturally appropriate long-term housing, wherever they live.
15. All rental housing must be maintained in accordance with strict quality standards. Landlords - including public and community housing providers - must make repairs and replacements in reasonable time or be liable to pay fines or compensation to tenants.
16. An adequate supply of government provided crisis accommodation with appropriate support to cater for people in crisis or experiencing multiple and complex challenges.
Home Ownership
17. Greater access to affordable home ownership.
18. Mandatory inclusionary zoning in all residential growth zones, activity centres and large apartment blocks.
19. Develop mechanisms to facilitate lower-income home ownership.
20. Promote alternative forms of home ownership facilitation to the market, including community land trusts, leasehold schemes, co-housing, self- build schemes and shared equity.
21. Increase taxes on vacant properties to encourage increased availability of rental properties.
22. Support collaborative or deliberative models of housing, through local and state planning policies and incentives, to allow alternative models of housing and reduce cost of ownership.
Public Housing
23. Existing public housing stock and land to remain in public ownership.
24. Everyone who is unable to access private housing should be provided public housing in a timely manner.
25. All Victorians who require it to have access to affordable public housing with security of tenure, and appropriate support services where necessary.
26. Increased investment in public housing through budgetary allocations to substantially reduce state-wide waiting times.
27. Requests for transfers from public housing tenants must be met in a timely manner.
28. While there is a significant waiting list, public housing should be fully utilised and not stay vacant, unused or deteriorating for long periods of time.
29. Greater housing choice for tenants, in terms of location and type of dwelling.
30. Promote tenant participation in decisions about public housing services.
31. Public housing to be in locations that provide reasonable access to employment, health-care, public transport, open space, schools and other social and facilities.
Alternative Housing Options
32. Ensure security of tenure for community housing tenants.
33. Increased funding to reduce waiting lists for community housing including a permanent program of ongoing government capital grants to increase supply.
34. Targeted housing assistance and innovative financing models for more effective community housing supply.
35. Promote tenant participation in decisions about community housing services.
36. Support community housing providers to increase the supply of affordable housing.
Tentants’ Rights
37. To establish a landlord registration scheme to provide transparency, accountability and data for information to renters.
38. Mandate a standardised rental application and payments system, with data retained by governments not landlords or real estate agents
39. Require greater transparency for rental application decisions.
40. Ban rental bidding.
41. Establish rent controls.
42. Increase the supply of affordable private rental accommodation including through innovative funding mechanisms.
43. Greater tenant rights, including:
- a. strictly regulating tenancy databases;
- b. banning rental bidding;
- c. ensuring security of tenure, by ending “without grounds” eviction;
- d. ending discrimination including allowing children and pets;
- e. establishing rent controls;
- f. mandated quality standards; and ,
- g. access to rapid no cost resolution of disputes with landlords.
44. Greater tenant support and advocacy, in particular for vulnerable groups such as international students, rooming house residents and long-term residents of caravan parks.
45. Leases for private rental housing should default to longer term tenancies, while retaining the right for short term tenancies on demand
46. Private tenants should be able to appeal any rent increase without prejudicing their ongoing tenancy.
47. Landlords to support relevant lease agreement changes when requested to protect against perpetrators of family violence.
48. Strengthen the rights of caravan park residents.
49. Eliminate Homelessness through a state-wide suite of programs, including
- a. early intervention programs to address the housing crisis and prevent homelessness, including the Tenancy Plus type model;
- b. crisis responses covering assertive outreach models plus availability of short term accommodation (e.g. refuges and generalist crisis accommodation facilities);
- c. transitional housing and support packages (using public and community housing and private rental stock) to enable households to build their foundations living skills and resources to then take up independent housing (e.g. the youth foyers);
- d. integration of housing with the provision of flexible packages of support matched to individual circumstances, needs and capabilities to prevent recurring homelessness of vulnerable households;
- e. supported housing with permanent tenure and adequate level of floating or residential support according to individual needs, such as that espoused by the “Housing First” model; and,
- f. enable people in housing crisis to directly access permanent housing.
50. Promote the participation of people experiencing homelessness in decisions regarding their housing and support services.
Retirement Housing
51. Stronger regulation and oversight of retirement housing with accessible legal recourse for residents
52. Reduce the complexity of contracts, including exit fees, and ensure the inclusion in all contracts a minimum set of tenants and owners’ rights and provider obligations.
53. Ensure free advocacy or legal advice is available and disclosed to anybody seeking rental or retirement village accommodation.
Housing Standards
54. Strengthen disability access provisions in all new and existing housing.
55. Reduce the environmental impact of housing, both during construction and throughout the life of the building, by setting requirements for energy efficiency, insulation and water conservation, and promoting the use of eco-friendly or recycled construction materials, fixtures and fittings.
56. Enforce high minimum standards of durability, energy efficiency, noise insulation, privacy, and water conservation in new and old buildings.
57. Public and community housing to be adapted to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as heat stress.
58. Provide financial assistance to home-owners and landlords, for the installation of solar panels and energy and water efficiency retrofits.
59. Mandatory disclosure of the energy ratings of residential buildings when they are for sale or rent.
60. Encourage experimental housing that fosters innovation and the above aims.
61. Accelerate the use of zero carbon emission building technologies and green building design.
62. Housing provision must ensure:
● secure tenure and protection from forced evictions and harassment by owners and their agents;
● cost of housing remain affordable and to not come at the expense of food, education and healthcare;
● housing is habitable, in a reasonable physical condition and of adequate size;
● services, amenities and work are nearby and accessible;
● housing is accessible and support independent living; and
● culturally appropriate housing forms that promote cultural identity.
Glossary:
Public housing is rental accommodation provided by governments in which the property is owned and operated by a government authority.
Community Housing Organisations (CHOs) are non-government housing providers that offer rental housing options
Social housing is an umbrella term encompassing a spectrum of housing forms, typically where housing is owned or operated by governments, councils, not-for-profits, community housing trusts and cooperatives.
Inclusionary zoning is a requirement that a given share of a development be more affordable than market rates.
Universal Design Principles are accessibility criteria devised to guide the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.
Housing and Homelessness Policy as amended by State Council on 12 February 2022