Dickson has welcomed the suburb’s newest residents today at the opening of the latest Common Ground social and affordable housing development, as ACT Minister for Housing Yvette Berry urged Canberrans to support public housing in their communities.

Common Ground Dickson offers 40 apartments with one, two, or three bedrooms, which have been furnished by Ikea in Canberra.

The building will also soon be home to a social enterprise that will give residents the opportunity for employment and skill development, Ms Berry says.

Women and families are the predominate focus of this particular Common Ground, including women escaping domestic and family violence, which differs from Common Ground Gungahlin’s focus on housing people who have been sleeping rough.

Communal spaces are scattered around the building to help foster a supportive and engaging community atmosphere for the residents.

One of the directors of Common Ground Canberra, Fiona Smith du Toit, emphasised the importance of community within the Common Ground housing model.

She says the Dickson community “from the get go” has embraced Common Ground Dickson by providing vital and encouraging support, including from community councils, the Thursday Friendship Quilters who made 174 quilts and blankets for the new tenants, local churches, businesses, and everyday residents.

Ms Berry describes Common Ground Dickson as “much more than bricks and mortar” and says “everyone deserves a place to call home”.

Growing up in public housing, the minister urges ACT residents to embrace the initiative and to welcome public housing into their communities.

She acknowledges the difficulties in getting some Canberrans on board to build social housing in their communities, including some of her Parliamentary colleagues.

“People that live in public housing are the same as the rest of us. They have the same hopes and aspirations for a good and happy life,” says Ms Berry.

“The journey to get here has not always been an easy one and not everybody supports public housing in the ACT, and so before I continue, I want to make a pitch to everyone today, that the ACT Government is absolutely committed to build more public housing, will continue to build public housing despite some of the challenges that we might face in our communities, and encourage everybody to be like Dickson and welcome public housing into your community…

“Help us on this journey because every day that we delay in building public housing in this city is another day that people are waiting on the waiting list that are experiencing homelessness, that are rough sleeping, that are escaping and leaving violent families and homes, but we need to build more public housing and we need our community to help us get there and welcome them into their communities.”

ACT residents currently in need of public housing experience wait times ranging from an average of 375 days for priority housing and up to 1,673 days (4.5 years) for standard housing. Wait lists for public housing have also been exacerbated by COVID-19.

YWCA Canberra CEO Frances Crimmins echoes Ms Berry’s call that “this is a problem for all of us to solve… this is a problem for all Canberrans, all of our people, and it needs all of us to stand up and say so”.

Earlier this year, YWCA Canberra faced opposition from some nearby residents to the YHomes Ainslie development that will house older women on modest incomes and women with children escaping domestic violence in the ACT.

A group of Ainslie residents lodged an appeal after the YWCA’s development application was approved by the independent ACT Planning and Land Authority and received an assessment process, which included community consultation.

However, the development is going ahead after the Minister for Planning and Land Management Mick Gentleman used his call-in powers to sign off on the YWCA’s revised application.

Chief Minister hoping for 2% of Commonwealth social housing commitment

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr was there to welcome the new tenants and highlighted the renewed attention social and community housing has been receiving from the newly elected federal government.

He says the issue is firmly on the Commonwealth government’s agenda and, for the “first time in a long time”, there is a concerted effort to increase social housing resources.

His immediate discussions with his federal counterparts will be the delivery of their commitment of around 30,000 additional social housing dwellings across the country.

Mr Barr says his hope is that the allocations will be on a per capita basis and, if so, the ACT would receive about two per cent, which equates to around 600 properties.

“I hope the Commonwealth will do more on this initial problem but it’s a really good start,” he says.

According to Mr Barr, housing, housing affordability, and the supply of social housing was an agenda item at the last national cabinet meeting, and Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers is convening a meeting with state and territory treasurers next Tuesday night with housing firmly on the agenda.

YWCA providing onsite support services for Common Ground Dickson

Ms Crimmins says she is proud to be working in collaboration on Common Ground Dickson in delivering onsite support services for both the social and affordable housing tenants.

The first group of social housing tenants moved into Common Ground Dickson one month ago, and Ms Crimmins says she has already seen positive change from the impact of having a welcoming community.

“The tenant base is diverse, as we have heard, and it cuts across age, parenting status, and cultural identify. What they share, however, is that they have all experienced either uncertainty and stress of Canberra’s unaffordable housing and rental market and our shortage of social housing properties,” she says.

“For some tenants, sleeping in a car, a garage or a spare room was a daily reality and a daily trauma, and it’s a privilege to share the joy that comes from having the privacy, comfort, and safety of your own home.”

Rebecca Vassarotti says Common Ground Dickson is ‘not the end’

Local Dickson resident, Minister for Homelessness and Housing Services, Rebecca Vassarotti, says the ACT Government have “been investing significant amounts of money into the homelessness sector” and Common Ground Dickson “is not the end”.

“It is about providing more emergency accommodation than longer-term options but also providing the supports in place to ensure that people can really break the cycle of homelessness, and I really thank the homelessness sector,” she says.

“This has been a difficult time for our community and will continue to be challenging for our community in terms of housing affordability, so we do have to work together to identify new opportunities and new ways to respond to it.”

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Read more here:

• Griffith-Narrabundah residents upset with ACT Government on public housing
• YWCA Ainslie housing development for vulnerable women to proceed
• ACTCOSS: ACT public housing policy ‘heartless and cruel’
• Minister Berry refutes ACTCOSS’ public housing relocation claims
• Record $100 million for ACT public housing, but ‘long overdue’