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  9. Policy Framework 2024-25 Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Q Shelter acknowledges that there are significant current efforts across sectors to address housing and homelessness needs.

The challenges persist, however, with a constrained private rental market and rising rental costs. There remain 23,256 households with an active application on the housing register of need (39,514 people) and homelessness services continue to see increased demand for assistance.

A housing plan is under preparation in Queensland, the Federal Government is preparing a national housing and homelessness action plan, and the Queensland State Government is set to undertake an independent review of homelessness funding.

With these processes pending, it is critical to change our current trajectory to invest most in upstream prevention rather than an over-reliance on crisis responses.

The current need for immediate responses is tangible, so we propose an approach to investment that uplifts funding for Specialist Homelessness Services for a term of  funding while upstream measures to achieve a healthy housing system and tenancy sustainment support are embedded.

Prevention

  • Intensive early-life interventions to prevent exposure to adverse events
  • Prevent exits from institutions to homelessness
  • Fund recurrent tenancy sustainment support
  • Undertake effective system design
  • Invest in the health of the whole housing system

Homelessness

  • Increase funding to Specialist Homelessness Services by 25%
  • Expand supportive housing to key growth locations
  • Ensure funding certainty for specialist services and a co-design process for regional service systems and responses

Population groups

  • Ensure specific targets and investments for population groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander responses, responses to young people, older people, people living with disability and people impacted by hoarding and squalor

Housing supply

  • Increase capital funding for social and affordable housing by $500 million per annum
  • Increase the HIF to $4 billion
  • Accelerate community housing industry policy reforms
  • Invest in capacity to deliver modular homes at scale through industry support and commissioning
  • Continue progress on planning system reforms including consideration of inclusionary zoning delivered through a combination of mandatory requirements, incentives and subsidies
  • Increase investment in community development work to build community support for social and affordable housing
  • Remove exclusionary zoning practices that limit housing diversity
  • Accelerate the housing monitoring program and including methodologies to monitor displacement
  • Address and prevent negative housing market impacts from Brisbane 2032
  • Develop a Housing Trust for Queensland

Workforce

  • Fund traineeships, cadetships and training costs for the housing and homelessness sector
  • Co-design pathways and roles to involve and include people with lived experience in the workforce

Embed the voices of people with lived experience

  • Fund a tenant participation program
  • Fund peer leadership training
  • Scope the formation of a peer led organisation
  • Adopt the paid participation policy reflective of the Queensland Mental Health Commission
  • Strengthen tenant satisfaction surveys through an independent, peer-led organisation

 



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