Event Wrap Up: 'A Just Housing Future for Victoria?' & the 2024 CSSV Annual General Meeting

Last Friday, in the dining hall of Sacred Heart Mission and in front of an audience of council members, bishops, member organisation leaders and life members, Catholic Social Services Victoria (CSSV) hosted a cross-sector discussion panel prior to its Annual General Meeting pondering the question; what does a just housing future for Victoria look like?

Hang Vo, CEO at Sacred Heart Mission, moderated the discussion featuring Dannii de Kretser, Deputy CEO at Homes Victoria, Fiona Williams, CEO at CatholicCare Victoria Housing (CCVH), and Ingrid Langtry, Head of Place and Experience at Assemble, who generously took the place of Super Housing Partnerships CEO Carolyn Viney, as she was unable to attend.

With the increasing severity of the ongoing housing crisis, the wide variety of expertise on the panel provided insightful perspectives into how government, the Catholic social services sector, and the private sector envision what is needed to mitigate the current housing crisis and ensure housing supply is accessible to all Victorians.

Central to the discussion was regarding the approaches that are being taken or need to be taken to increase the supply of affordable homes in Victoria. Dannii de Kretser highlighted the importance of the National Housing Agreement for income for social housing. She also emphasised that the Government sees part of their role in this crisis as reducing the price of building for the private sector. Collaboration between the private sector and government were discussed as vital in addressing the housing crisis. Comments and questions from the audience emphasised that any future developments include adequate investment in public and community housing.

Ingrid Langtry presented Assemble as an example of a private affordable housing provider using a rent-to-buy model with values around community interaction. She raised concern that difficult planning processes have restricted opportunities to increase the number of developments Assemble can build. In response, Dannii de Kretser noted that Victoria’s Housing Statement resolves to accelerate the rate of planning and development to ensure the housing targets can be met.

Fiona Williams highlighted how severe the housing crisis has become in regional Victoria. CCVH provides safe and stable housing to those on low incomes in Ballarat, Warrnambool, Bannockburn, Swan Hill, Mildura and Tatura. In these areas, Fiona cited that housing providers are encountering exceptionally high demand for ‘regular’ housing, let alone affordable housing. It was clear from discussions that much continued investment into regional Victoria is needed to meet demand for all, but particularly those most disadvantaged.

Each panellist emphasised that cross sector partnership holds an important place in their organisation and is integral in addressing the housing crisis from all angles. As a small community housing provider, CCVH has relied on building strong partnerships with prospective investors for delivering their affordable homes. This collaborative style of operation has proved successful for CCVH, who are also delivering a number of projects for the Government’s Big Build.

A question received by the panel related to if and how vacant properties can be better utilised as homes. Dannii de Kretser reiterated the Government’s commitment to convert under-used commercial buildings to residential and mixed-use properties as laid out in Victoria’s Housing Statement. She also referred to the implementation of the Short Stay Levy as a policy mechanism to both disincentivise short stay accommodation as well as a revenue stream for social housing.

CSSV has explored this idea extensively in our ‘Houses as Homes’ discussion paper which advocates to ensure no property is sitting unnecessarily vacant in a housing crisis. We know that a significant number of houses sit under- or unused in Victoria each year. In 2019 (the most recently available data from Prosper Australia) 69,000 properties that could house over 185,000 people were likely vacant in Greater Melbourne alone. If even a fraction of these properties were utilised, they could provide an immediate response to the housing crisis, as building new properties takes time – time that many who are currently struggling to secure housing do not have.

This thought-provoking discussion was followed by CSSV’s 2024 Annual General Meeting. It was invigorating to see so many of the working parts of CSSV in one room, and a fantastic opportunity to connect with new and familiar faces.

Karen Englebretsen, Spiritual Care Worker at Sacred Heart Mission, led attendees in a deeply applicable prayer that set a tone of gratitude and acknowledgement. She asked us to consider the value of CSSV as a tree of woven, interconnected parts – planting seeds in the communities its members and the Church serve each day.

Deputy Chair of Council, Jenny Glare, gave the Chairperson’s report. Jenny emphasised the value of Executive Director Josh Lourensz’s collaborative style of operation which has led to strong partnerships and proved particularly successful in the work CSSV undertook with a variety of other organisations last year in the lead up to the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. These partnerships have been of great strength for CSSV’s work, reach and advocacy.

In his Executive Director’s report, Josh reflected on CSSV’s unique place in bringing together different parties and sectors to discuss solutions that address issues in their entirety, of which the prior housing discussion was exemplary. This is where CSSV holds much value to its members and is a key approach through all our work.

He also touched on the some of the key projects CSSV undertook in its priority areas in 2023. Significant effort was put into engaging the Catholic community in learning and having discussions with informed individuals, communities and organisations in the lead up to the referendum. While the outcome of the referendum was undoubtably a devastating drawback in the path to justice for First Nations People, the engagement CSSV and its collaborative organisations had with the Catholic community were productive and built a strong foundation from which CSSV will continue to progress reconciliation as an integral aspect of Justice and Equity.

Josh referred to the release of ‘Faith, Hope and Love’, a report mapping Victoria’s Catholic social services sector, where CSSV was able to compare the reach and breadth of the sector now with that in 2017. Josh emphasised walking the line between celebrating our sector’s important work while acknowledging that, ideally, we should be seeing the number of people in need of our services decreasing, not increasing.

The 2023 Annual Report was released during the AGM and includes more detail on features of CSSV’s work in our areas of strategic focus and reports from Josh Lourensz, Jenny Glare, and reflections from other Council Members. Read the CSSV 2023 Annual Report here.

We would like to thank Mark Brown from the Bunurong Land Council for the gracious Welcome to Country he provided to open proceedings, and Sacred Heart Mission for their generous hospitality in hosting us for this event.