We are pleased to announce that Australia’s Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) is the newest addition to CHI’s membership.

Melina Morrison, BCCM’s CEO, shared the following after receiving the membership news: “We look forward to engaging with CHI and active participation in the movement for growing the cooperative housing sector across the globe.”

Australia’s Housing Crisis

Australia is currently experiencing a growing crisis of unaffordable housing, which is a problem faced by many other countries. To address this issue, the government is funding rental cooperatives which currently house around 5,750 people across 3,000 coops. There is also a limited equity and full equity sector for housing cooperatives, albeit small. These rental cooperatives are mainly organized under the Australian Co-operative Housing Alliance (ACHA), with secretarial support provided by the BCCM. The BCCM is working to assist these organizations in engaging with the government and lobbying for improvements in housing policies. Additionally, ACHA has teamed up with three universities and secured research funding to investigate the unique advantages of housing cooperatives. The research findings will be out later this year. BCCM is also providing support to the sector so that they can use the research findings to advocate for an expansion of cooperatives.

BCCM is bringing together the full equity housing cooperative and rental housing coop sectors to increase mixed equity and limited equity models. They are also exploring ways for finance cooperatives to partner with housing cooperatives to grow the sector.

Housing Blueprint

The Australian government is increasingly interested in solving housing issues in Australia. The BCCM wants to ensure that housing cooperatives are a significant part of that solution. Furthermore, the BCCM is calling on all political parties to work with the sector to develop equity and share equity models of coop housing that can give more Australians access to secure and affordable housing. Read the BCCM’s Housing Blueprint here.

Australia and Housing Cooperatives

CHI is delighted to welcome the BCCM’s contributions to our sectoral organization. It’s exciting to see the expansion of knowledge and experience around the table.

To learn about housing cooperatives in Australia and their connection to the current debates about affordable housing, you can read this overview.

We are also pleased to welcome Linda Seaborn, Senior Policy Advisor with BCCM, to our upcoming Member Forum on May 17, 2023. You can read all the details here.