The Business A new solution to ending homelessness

Throughout these last few months, I have been grateful to be isolating from this pandemic safely and securely. Like many, I have been resting comfortably with family, secure in the knowledge that despite the uncertainty of our futures, I have a place to lay my head each night.

For 116,000 Australians, this is not the case.

Homelessness is one of the biggest social issues in Australia, one that I can predict will heighten in a post-Covid future as the economic consequences of this pandemic are revealed. With 1.5 million Australians already living in housing stress and a projected deficiency of 1 million social and affordable houses by 2036, we are in dire need of a solution to house the most vulnerable in our society. Homes for Homes recognises this challenge and has created a community-led solution to solving homelessness.

Homes for Homes – a promise to help end homelessness

Homes for Homes, created by social enterprise The Big Issue, is a simple, sustainable and collaborative solution which raises funds for social and affordable housing through donations from property sales. It’s a promise that property owners make – when a home registered with Homes for Homes sells, 0.1% of the sale price is donated. These funds are pooled and granted to community housing providers to increase the supply of social and affordable housing.

Registration is so simple, it can be done online and only takes a few minutes. Once the property is registered, Homes for Homes lodges a caveat on the property. It’s a caveat for good, simply acting as a gentle reminder that when it comes time to sell, a tax deductable 0.1% donation of the sale price will be transferred to Homes for Homes. For example, a home sold for $750,000 would make a tax deductable donation of $750. The caveat remains on the property title so that future donations can be made from the same property and generations can benefit from your promise. The donations are pooled and granted to social and affordable housing providers, with money raised in a state or territory creating housing in that state or territory.

High impact

Thanks to the support from homeowners, organisations and governments, we are thrilled to have already granted $940,000 to eight social and affordable housing projects that will house

Steven Persson, CEO Homes for Homes

32 people. We have worked with trusted organisations such as Habitat for Humanity Victoria, Women’s Property Initiatives, HousingFirst and Community Housing Canberra (CHC), with grant funds contributing to projects that will provide social and affordable housing to a wide range of people experiencing disadvantage and marginalisation, including people experiencing homelessness, poverty, family breakdown, physical and mental illness, disability and more. Our third grant round of funding has just closed, and will see us grant a further $200,000 to create housing in the ACT.

I recall our first housing handover in 2019 to a young family in Yea, Victoria. The young couple Jema and Romel with their daughter Isla had faced incredible danger and housing stress in their everyday life, but thanks to Homes for Homes and our supporters the family were able to start a new life in a modern three-bedroom house. Having our funds contribute to providing a home for this family was an incredibly gratifying experience, and we are committed to providing more opportunities like this.

Planners, councils, developers and the community

Thanks to the support from the community, developers and governments, we anticipate Homes for Homes to raise more than $1 billion to increase the supply of social and affordable housing in the next 30 years. We currently receive support from 19 developers, including Mirvac, Capital Airport Group,

Development Victoria, Balcon and Toga. These developers have registered projects which represent a property pipeline of over 11,000 dwellings. Donations from these projects alone will exceed $40m over the next 30 years.

Homes for Homes doesn’t mandate that developers donate (although many are choosing to), but simply help to increase the pipeline of participating properties by registering their housing stock with Homes for Homes once built. This model means that participating in Homes for Homes isn’t a barrier for developers, but instead complements any existing affordable housing initiatives that the developer may already be undertaking.

In Victoria we have seen great support from developers and community. Victoria’s Moreland City Council is the first council in Australia who has formally endorsed support for Homes for Homes. Homes for Homes is embedded within their design excellence scorecard, meaning developers who commit to Homes for Homes via the scorecard will be fast-tracked through the planning process. This is a terrific example of local council taking a leading role to further enable the creation of social and affordable housing in their municipality and embedding this in the planning process.

In 2019, Homes for Homes won the Planning Institute of Australia (Victoria Division) prestigious President’s Award. PIA celebrated Homes for Homes as an inspirational example of innovation in increasing the supply of social and affordable housing. The award is a recognition of the success and excellence of Homes for Homes in the planning industry, and we thank PIA for the accolade.

Having a place to call home is fundamental to a healthy sense of wellbeing. It enables us to lead a positive life, to do things such as wash and cook meals, hold down a job or attend school. It impacts how others see us and how we see ourselves.

In these challenging times, we have seen the importance of housing keeping us safe, healthy and protected in a new light. Our focus has always been to ensure that every Australian, regardless of disadvantage, has the opportunity to share in the freedom, independence and stability of secure housing that many of us take for granted. As we move into a new normal where the need for more social and affordable housing will grow, we remain committed to solving homelessness in Australia. Homelessness is not a problem that one person, organisation or government can solve, but I believe Homes for Homes is the long-term, sustainable, collaborative platform that will allow the entire community to act and be part of the solution.

Welcome to our new members…

Cameron Algie Kellehers Australia

Jayden Bath MinterEllison

Ansuya Bhat Ratio Consultants

James Binkhorst Avisure

Brianna Bowell Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications

Alfred Carnovale Kingston City Council

Stephanie Cimino Equipe Lawyers

Danielle Cull Kinetica

Arnold Dix Victorian Bar

Charlotte Glossop Glossop Town Planning

Aaron Goldsworthy Australian Strategic Services

Caroline Graham Tract Consultants

Kayla Gregg Davis Advisory

Kelly Grigsby Wyndham City Council

Chun Guo Ratio Consultants

James Hamilton Urbis

Jane Hanna City of Stonnington

Daniel Herrmann Tract Consultants

Leigh Hogarty-Langston

Penny Holloway Penelope Holloway Consultancy

Sam Jiang Keen Planning

Darren Kosh Geocentral Engineering

Rick Liu City of Casey Council

Scott Matheson Ratio Consultants

Michael Meyer Urbis

Melanie Montalban Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office

Roger Munn Spiire

Tim Nicholls Marshall Day Acoustics

Tim Nichols Kinetica

Suganya Pathan Victorian Bar

Ruth Redden Context GML

Natasha Reifschneider ESA2 Pty Ltd

Melanie Savage Jacobs

Mitch Seach Ratio Consultants

Fatemeh Shahani Center for Urban Transitions

Elizabeth Spanjer City of Boroondara

Ben Thomson Ratio Consultants

James Tighello Sherwell Harrison Munro Lawyers

Krishna Keerthi Tirumalachetty Kinetica

Claire Toole Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office

Sonia Turnbull HWL Ebsworth Lawyers

Lachlan Waddell University of Melbourne

Tom Zhou Monash University

Xin Zhou THUPDI

Andrea Zohar SJB Planning