The Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO) is releasing the new Aboriginal Community Housing Rent Policy (ACHRP).
This income based policy ensures that rents are calculated consistently, fairly and are at levels to support a strong and viable sector, reflecting AHO’s commitment under Pillar 3 of Strong Family, Strong Communities (SFSC) to Grow the Sector.
It has been developed as a result of the conversations we have had with Aboriginal people, families, communities and housing providers since late 2017. The AHO have listened and the policy is a reflection of the community’s wish for fair rent, collected reliably.
.All AHO tenants in AHO houses will have their rent determined in the same way regardless of who is managing their property or where they live. A viable housing sector will not only ensure existing houses can be maintained properly, but will also provide the ability to grow housing numbers over time.
To assist housing providers implement the new policy, the AHO has built a new online rent calculator hosted in the Provider Portal in Ngamuru. Excitingly, it has an interface with Services Australia (Centrelink) allowing tenants to voluntarily opt-in to a service that allows their housing provider to collect income data directly from Centrelink. This means tenants will not need to navigate through complex forms to update any changes to income earners in the house.
At the AHO, building and strengthening the Aboriginal housing sector is everyone’s business. That is why we are committed to supporting ACHPs to grow and deliver culturally appropriate services for Aboriginal tenants, communities and families. We want to foster and encourage successful and sustainable growth that will help create opportunities for training and employment, and improve the lives of Aboriginal people in NSW.
There is a suite of supporting documents and tools including user guide, factsheet and Q&A to assist ACHPs to implement the ACHRP and calculator.
We have recently commenced rolling out face to face training in the use of the calculator for our Growth and Property Management Transfer providers and will continue to work with providers to implement the policy and calculator
