A multi-billion-dollar boost to social and crisis housing will be announced in Tuesday’s Federal Budget.
A meeting of National Cabinet last week agreed on a joint-arrangement with state and territories which doubles funding for the National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Federal Government would commit to extra $400 million in funding each year for the next five years, a figure which would be matched by the states and territories.
In addition, the Federal Budget will allocate $1 billion towards crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
This would be delivered under the National Housing Infrastructure Facility and includes increasing the proportion of grants for from $175 million to $700 million, Prime Minister Albanese said.
He said an extra $1 billion would be provided to states and territories for housing infrastructure such as roads, sewers, energy, water and community infrastructure needed for new homes and for additional social housing supply.
The funding announcements follow other recent housing-related initiatives, including $90.6 million aimed at boosting the number of construction workers through 20,000 new fee-free TAFE places.
“We also need to reduce pressure on the private rental market,” Prime Minister Albanese said.
“That’s why we will also work with the higher education sector on new regulation to require universities to increase their supply of student accommodation for domestic and international students.”
