Greater Whitsunday Housing Summit - POSTPONED TO 15/08/23

HOST NOTE: This event is postponed to 15/08/23. The new event can also be found on Humanitix here: https://events.humanitix.com/g...

The Summit will seek to develop solutions to the Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday region’s housing issues in line with the priorities identified at the Housing Roundtable in December 2022, that is:

1. Availability and Diversity of Choice both ranked as number 1 priority
2. Affordability
3. Customer Needs
4. Roles and Responsibilities

URBIS have been appointed to gather baseline data prior to the Summit to ensure that the solutions that are developed are grounded in evidence and the reality of the situation in our region. An interim report will be shared with you prior to the Summit for you to inform yourself and also to provide you with an opportunity to provide feedback before the report is finalized.

It is expected that the Summit will result in many potential sub-projects that will be outlined in an Action Plan. This Action Plan will position us well to attract private investment as well as State and Federal spending linked to the funding schemes they have outlined, including:

• Queensland Government’s $2B Housing Investment Fund: The HIF provides subsidies, one-off capital grants and other support to encourage developers, builders, Community Housing Providers, tenancy managers, institutional investors and superannuation funds to partner to develop, finance and operate social and affordable housing across Queensland. https://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/programs-and-policies/housing-investment-fund/
• Federal Government’s National Housing Accord to build 1,000,000 new homes by 2029: https://www.nationalhousingaccord.au/
• Federal Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund - The Budget allocates $10 billion to be invested in the Housing Australia Future Fund; the investment returns from the Fund will fund the building of 20,000 new social housing dwellings and 10,000 new affordable housing dwellings.

We need strategies to access these funding sources for projects that will have maximum impact for our region, and what is important to note is that all of these funding schemes encourage partnerships across a number of key stakeholders. A collaborative Housing Summit provides an opportunity for these partnerships to form.

Join us and be part of the solution.