What's in the 2019–20 Budget for housing and homelessness?
An overview of housing and homelessness measures in the 2019–20 Federal Budget
08 Apr 2019
The 2019–20 Federal Budget was recently announced and includes the following measures relating to housing and homelessness.
National Housing and Homelessness Agreement
In 2019–20, the Australian Government will provide $1.56 billion to the states and territories through the ongoing National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA), which is a 1.88% increase from the 2018–19 allocation of $1.53 billion.
Table 1: NHHA funding for states and territories 2019-29
| NSW | Vic | QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
$484.2m |
$406.0m |
$319.8m |
$165.9m |
$108.7m |
$33.7 m |
$26.7 m |
$20.0 m |
$1,564.9 m |
Source: Budget Paper No. 3 - Federal Financial Relations, p. 41
National Partnerships for affordable housing
$114.9 million will be provided to the states and territories through specific National Partnerships for affordable housing. These include:
- $300,000 for the National Regulatory System for Community Housing to promote a nationally consistent approach to the regulation of community housing and to provide certainty for community housing providers and confidence to potential investors
- $3.5 million for the National Partnership on Northern Territory Remote Aboriginal investment — remote Australia strategies component
- $110 million for the National Partnership on remote housing.
As part of the National Partnerships for affordable housing, The Australian Government will also provide funding to trial social impact investments that aim to assist vulnerable priority groups, including:
- $500,000 for Vulnerable priority groups
- $500,000 for Youth at risk of homelessness
Social impact investment taskforce
In addition to the social impact investment trials under National Partnerships for affordable housing, the Australian Government is committing $5.0 million to establish a task force to examine the Commonwealth’s role in the Social Impact Investment market so that such investments can provide solutions for entrenched disadvantage.
New social housing in Hobart City Deal
As part of the Hobart City Deal, the Australian Government is allocating $30 million to provide over 100 new social housing dwellings in partnership with community housing providers.
You can find out more about these housing, homelessness and urban measures by viewing the Budget papers on the Budget 2019–20 website.