There are major shifts and a restructure happening in NSW Housing. With the formation of the new Homes NSW Department, it’s easy to feel lost. That’s why we’ve gathered insights and responses from tenants and decision-makers to provide the most accurate and up-to-date answers to your housing questions.
At the Child and Family interagency and Waterloo residents network meeting, you asked: How will the new Homes NSW affect us (community members, children and families)?
The changes will not affect current tenancies. However, the new department aims to change how community members interact with housing and homelessness functions.
For example, it will overhaul how social housing maintenance is conducted across 95,000 of the state’s social housing properties. They intend to implement “a new and ‘simpler’ back-to-basics model.” As we know, the current privatised system doesn’t work – it’s confusing and disjointed.
A new maintenance hub and app will reportedly be operational by mid-2024. The proposed hub should mean improved responses, with trained experts who can better address tenants’ questions and coordinate work orders.
Families don’t need to do anything right now – official correspondence will now come from the Homes NSW team, and there will be a new name for what many call the “Department of Housing” or “LAHC.”
Residents of Aboriginal Housing Office properties will continue to be supported as they are now, and the Homes NSW team will now support those living in LAHC properties (See diagram).
Isn’t it just creating a new department? Are there three departments now?
There will be one Department. It brings together the housing and homelessness functions of the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), the NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC), the Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO) and key-worker housing functions from across government under one roof.
Homes NSW was created as a new division within DCJ. It reports directly to the DCJ Secretary through the new CEO, Rebecca Pinkstone, previously of community housing provider Bridge Housing. Several executive Directors will report to her.
The AHO, LAHC, and Housing Services teams were transferred from the Department of Planning and Environment to the Department of Communities and Justice on February 1, 2024.
At a recent RedWatch meeting in Waterloo, Minister Rose Jackson explained that Homes NSW aims to “make accessing support services easier for community members and families by combining services, expertise and skills under one roof to help tenants.”
“As a division within DCJ, Homes NSW aims to provide safe and secure homes through social and affordable housing while delivering support and services that minimise the repetition of homelessness experiences.”
At the Inner and Eastern Sydney Child and Family Interagency, you asked: Why do Housing officers send people who have gone to them for housing back to an NGO and request that the NGO send the Housing Department a letter of support for the person, explaining why the person needs housing?
We contacted Minister Rose Jackson’s office to answer this, and they were aware of the problem. They responded:
- There are times when this is required as part of a specific procedure, but in many cases, it is done to gather as much information as possible to best help the resident with their request. We strongly expect that NGOs and Community Housing Providers follow their obligations at all times and provide a high level of service to the residents they look after.
- Asking for more information shouldn’t imply a lack of belief in the individuals’ requests, and we will look into how we can do this better and more respectfully.
- The current process definitely needs improvement, and we understand why people may see it that way. With the creation of Homes NSW, we must work towards streamlining these requests, and we have raised this issue with Homes NSW to resolve. As always, people should feel free to get in touch with our office and raise any issues they may have—we are more than happy to hear your feedback and advice on how we can do things better.