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Community Rent Scheme

The Community Rent Scheme (CRS) helps registered providers to deliver transitional housing to eligible people. This housing is used as a transition to longer term housing or other secure housing options.

Funding is given to providers to lease a private rental or department-owned property.

Providers under the CRS must be accredited as specified in section 8A of the Housing Regulation 2003 (PDF, 482KB) (the Regulation).

Objectives

In providing transitional housing, the CRS aims to:

  • improve the transition from homelessness to housing systems
  • stabilise your circumstances and improve your ability to progress to longer-term living arrangements, in the private or public housing sectors. Transitional housing does this by giving intensively managed and closely monitored housing assistance based on assessed need.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the CRS, applicants must:

Allowable expenditure

The assistance agreement under CRS includes:

  • Housing Management Funding items like
    • salary on costs (see clause 10)
    • office rental and other office requirements
    • travel costs
    • training costs
    • insurance.
  • Property Management Funding items like
    • rental costs for the number of dwellings in the assistance agreement
    • repairs, arrears and vacancy costs
    • funds for future commitments as agreed between the provider and the department
    • insurance costs and legal expenses
    • other expenses as agreed in writing by the department and the provider.

The provider must:

  • only use receipts for allowable expenditure
  • not commit themself to contracts or other legal obligations that extend beyond the period of funding, or the term stated in the assistance agreement.

Policy requirements

The provider must comply with its obligations under the Regulation, including its obligations to keep and implement policies in sections 25, 26, 26B, 28 and 34.

Each policy requirement detailed below must be read together with the assistance agreement and the Regulation.

  • Referrals Policy (s25 of the Regulation)
  • Eligibility Policy (s26 of the Regulation)
  • Allocations Policy (s26B of the Regulation)
  • Dispute Resolution and Review of Decisions (s29 of the Regulation)
  • Rent (s34 of the Regulation)

Tenancy planning and review

The provider must implement the Tenancy Planning and Review policy, procedures and guidelines provided by the department at regular intervals.

Property management

The provider must not use the funds to lease any property from or to any:

  • employee or officer of the provider
  • family member, partner or relative of an employee or officer of the provider
  • entity which is owned, in full or in part, by either a person listed above, or which that person may have an interest (i.e. shares).

All property used by the provider to supply a housing service must be kept in good order and repair.

Maintenance and repairs

When the provider carries out repairs, any broken items must be replaced with items of a similar standard. Maintenance must be carried out in a lawful manner and be of good quality, durable, and made of low maintenance materials to cater for high wear and tear.

The provider must comply with all laws and regulations in relation to the health and safety of people using or entering the property.

Purchases made and work undertaken relating to the property must:

  • represent the best value for money
  • be completed by tradespeople selected through fair and equitable means, free from any conflict of interest
  • be completed in a timely manner by a qualified licensed tradesperson with adequate insurance cover.  

If a tradesperson is engaged for an extended period of time, the provider must periodically check the tradesperson is licensed to carry out the works and holds adequate insurance cover.

Operational levels

Operational levels or quotas of the provider are negotiated between the department and the provider. Things that determine the operational levels or quotas of the provider include the:

  • number of properties managed by the provider under the CRS—detailed in the assistance agreement
  • geographic area to be serviced.

Salary oncosts

Salary oncosts are provided by the department at 24% of the salary contribution. These funds must be set aside by the provider to cover staff costs, such as:

  • recreation leave (4 weeks)
  • sick leave (10 days)
  • workers compensation insurance
  • superannuation
  • 17.5 % holiday loading.

These funds must not be used for any other purpose.

Insurance

The provider must hold public liability insurance for a minimum amount of $10,000,000 (10 million dollars).

Reporting

1.1 The provider must provide the following information and reports to the department within 21 days of being requested to do so in writing:

  • a copy of any required insurance policies, the receipts for the last premiums and certificates of currency of all  insurance policies
  • other information related to the provider's operations required by the department.

1.2 Without limiting the above clause (1.1), the provider must provide the following completed reports to the department in the time frames detailed below:

  • monthly services reports, reporting against the specific performance indicators identified in Annexure 1, in the form or system as supplied by the department. This should be received no later than the third business day of the following month
  • financial reports in the form or system as supplied by the department from time to time. The reporting periods are 1 July-30 September and 1 July–31 March annually. Cumulative (year-to-date) financial information must be reported for each reporting period. This report is due 21 days after the end of each reporting period (e.g. 21 October or 21 April)
  • the Social Housing Annual Financial Return in the form or system as provided by the department, by 31 October each year
  • a report that explains how it has met its obligations under the assistance agreement for each annual period ending 30 June, by 31 October each year
  • a report that gives the department property detail information in the form or system as supplied by the department, no later than 2 days after the property information has changed or a new property has been acquired.

More information

For more information on community housing:

Helpful resources

Licence
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0)
Last updated:
19 March 2013

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