UnitingSA Plots HAFF-Funded Community Housing

UnitingSA has filed plans for a 48-home community project it says will be funded by the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF). 

The proposal comprises community housing, supported accommodation and townhouses at 2-18 Market Place and 105 Gibson Street in the Adelaide suburb of Bowden. 

Six of the townhouses would be offered to market for private sale.

The remaining 42 affordable apartments would be in one residential building connected via shared pathways and designed to appear as two buildings.

The application offers the remaining apartments as either social housing or specialist disability accommodation under the designs by City Collective.

UnitingSA’s proposal said the project was supported by HAFF funding, receiving $7 million in Federal Social Housing Accelerator funding.

The first round of HAFF funding was announced last week. While Housing Australia did not reveal the full list of successful applicants, a handful of developers this year announced they were applying for the funding.

▲ The first tranche of funding released last week will deliver 13,700 social and affordable homes across the country, according to Housing Australia.

The project, dubbed Uniting on Hawker, would provide housing for women aged 55 years and over who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of homelessness. 

The 2950sq m site in Adelaide’s inner-east is in an area with a strong affordable-housing presence, the planning report by Future Urban said. 

However, much of the stock was dated, UnitingSA said, and did not meet energy-efficiency standards.

On the site now are single-storey, red-brick social housing blocks fronting Hawker and Gibson street that were built between 1990 and 2000. 

Not-for-profit UnitingSA provides affordable housing for communities on low-to-moderate incomes as well as National Disability Insurance Scheme-supported housing.