Social Housing.

We have assisted a number of social housing providers to refinance their loans through the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, including recently a $50 million facility for one client.

This has helped our clients secure lower cost loans to enable them to provide more social and affordable housing.

We have been appointed by a social housing provider to advise on a new social housing development with a capital budget of approximately $50 million across multiple stages. This includes advising on the best procurement approach, assisting with the appointment of consultants, preparing and negotiating building contracts and supporting in communications with the Victorian Government, one funder of the project.

We are standing beside our client for the duration of this project to help it make the best decisions, to protect its position and to most effectively deliver this project which will significantly increase the stock which the client will manage.

We acted for a large number of social housing providers in their 2019 applications for funding through the Victorian Social Housing Growth Fund, including helping put in place contracts of sale and development agreements with landowners and developers, advising on the State Contribution Agreement and ancillary documents and negotiating funding requirements with DHHS and associated parties.

For clients which were lucky enough to receive funding, this has enabled them to deliver their projects and improve the affordable housing outcomes in Victoria.

We were engaged by CHIA Vic to review and advise on the VHR opt-in documentation on behalf of their members. This included seeking to negotiate amendments to the documentation with DHHS and advising agencies on the key obligations and risks under the finalised documentation.

Our advice and support helped better align the VHR opt-in documentation with how agencies operate and enabled them to make an informed choice of whether or not to opt-in to the VHR.

The peak body noted it needed to quickly adapts its policies and procedures to ensure its member met the requirements of the then new family violence information sharing scheme.

We conducted a number of training sessions for the peak body and social housing providers in explaining the complex changes in accessible language and navigating case studies with participants.

The peak body was able to report an increased level of understanding and satisfaction with information levels from its members, and members appreciated the accessible training equipped their various levels of staff which level-appropriate information. Importantly, the training was not disruptive to the key work of the social housing providers and assisted them in fully serving clients experiencing family violence.