Fact Sheet 4 - $16 Million Initiative on Aboriginal Affordable Housing

The RWA has committed to facilitating the provision of new dwellings over the next 10 years to provide affordable housing for Aboriginal residents of Redfern-Waterloo.

These dwellings are proposed to be in addition to any housing currently owned or proposed to be privately developed by the Aboriginal Housing Company on AHC land on and around the Block in Redfern.

Taking the initiative, the RWA will provide seed funding of $1 million this financial year and a further $15 million will be committed from affordable housing contributions, to be derived from future development carried out in accordance with section 30 of the Redfern-Waterloo Authority Act 2004.

The Minister and the RWA will consult extensively with the broader Aboriginal community, including the Aboriginal Housing Company, on matters such as future governance and acquisition strategies, however management of the new housing infrastructure will be based on the following principles:

• the promotion of highly professional administrative standards
• the achievement of real outcomes of genuine benefit to the Aboriginal community
• the promotion of accountability and probity
• broad representativeness
• the promotion of Aboriginal capacity building

The RWA will commence discussions shortly with the Commonwealth Government in accordance with the terms of the Commonwealth/State Redfern-Waterloo Partnership Agreement, which was signed by the  Minister for Redfern-Waterloo, Frank Sartor, and the Commonwealth Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, in June 2006.

Under the Partnership Agreement, the two governments have committed to “work together to support the provision of affordable Indigenous housing in Redfern-Waterloo”.

Based on the 2001 Census, out of a total of 714 residents of Redfern and Waterloo, only 6 Indigenous households are fully owned or being purchased.

Moreover, 78.9% of Indigenous households in Redfern and 91% in Waterloo are public housing.

Development contributions in excess of the funds committed to Aboriginal housing will be directed towards affordable housing initiatives for the broader community.

You can download the original PDF Fact Sheet 4 (pdf~17kb)