2019 Forum on Housing-Impact Investment in WA

On Tuesday 11th June 2019 the Inaugural Housing-Impact Investment Forum will bring you a range of industry leading speakers, panel discussions and informative sessions on a range of topics including:    

• Impact Investment explained 
• Opportunities for building & funding impact investment projects in the housing sector
• Impact Investment and what it means for social and affordable housing 
• The challenges & opportunities in affordable, social and community housing
• Innovative financing models for shared equity and co-operative community housing  
• An exploration of impact investment funding and collaboration opportunities   
• A look at clean energy integration with NFP assets and community housing* 

The changing landscape   

2019 is a time of unprecedented change and challenges in the housing sector, with a shortage of 600,000 affordable and social home forecast by 2030.  This is unfolding against an incoming Government which will need to offer substantial policy change. Learn from local and national thought leaders and domain experts about inspirational new ways of investing in housing.    

Who should attend   

If you're a senior manager or executive level staff member across government, finance and housing sectors this forum is a must. A limited number of general admission tickets are available, with discounted tickets available to members of Shelter WA, CHIA WA, and ACSA

What is Impact Investment?   

Impact investments are investments (of a financial nature) made into organisations, social enterprises, projects or funds with the intention of generating not only a financial return but measurable social and environmental outcomes. Impact investments are different from grants because a financial return is expected, and different from mainstream finance because measurable social and environmental benefits are expected. (Impact Investment Australia) Whilst the impact investment model is quite clear, we will show you that it is often happening within organisations without being identified.

BOOK NOW FOR THE WA FORUM ON IMPACT INVESTMENT IN COMMUNITY HOUSING.  TICKETS ARE STRICTLY LIMITED.

Program

Time (WST)	Duration	Topic
8am	60 mins	BOOMPower Information Session – Energy solutions for the community housing sector
9am	30 mins	Registration for the day/Pack up from Information Session
9.30am	20 mins	Welcome, opening remarks: Kathleen Gregory, CEO Foundation Housing, Director Shelter WA Welcome to Country (Olman Walley)
9.50am	1 hour	Seminar/workshop: introductory concepts: impact investment and Impact Investment in community housing (in general)
10.50am	1 hr 15 mins	Panel: Policy environment and landscape: enabling and disabling factors for impact investing and innovative financing in housing. · Jennie Vartan: CHIA WA · Kathleen Gregory: Foundation Housing/Michelle MacKenzie: Shelter WA · Chris West: WA Super · Paul Flatau: CSI UWA · Mark Atkinson: Property Council of WA member/Atkinson Legal · Stuart Clarke: Director, Dept Housing
12.05pm	30 mins	Lunch
12.35pm	30 mins	Presentations: National innovations in community housing · 15 mins: Women’s Property Initiative (Caroline Larcher via VC) · 15 mins: Big Issue, Homes for Homes (Tracy Longo)
1.05pm	55 mins	Presentations: WA initiatives innovating in community housing · 15mins: Indigenous Business Australia (Kirsty Moore) · 15mins: Assisted Rental Pathways Pilot project (Natalia Gemmell) · 15mins: North-West Aboriginal Housing Fund (Steph Shorter) · 10mins: A social enterprise/community led approach to Aboriginal Housing: Bieundurry Designs (Lisa Halton)
2pm		Thanks and close

Speakers (with more to follow)

Chris West - GM Investments, WA Super
Chris has over 10 years of institutional investment experience covering portfolio construction, risk management, operations, and policy development. He has held roles as advisor and manager in the Superannuation industry and is currently the General Manager - Investments at WA Super. Before commencing a career in investment management, Chris has also held a variety of financial management roles in the public sector. Chris was a finalist in the Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards for Chief Investment Officer of the Year 2019. 

Professor Paul Flatau - Director, Centre for Social Impact at the UWA  
Formerly Director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute WA Research Centre, Paul has over 100 publications across labour economics, the history of economic thought, and social policy. He has made a significant contribution to homelessness research in Australia with his most recent work covering inter-generational homelessness, service integration, youth homelessness and the impact of homelessness programs such as the Michael project, Misha and the Journey to Social Inclusion.

Jennie Vartan - State Manager, Comunity Housing Industry Association WA
Jennie is a property professional with over 20 years Executive Management experience.  As Former Deputy CEO of Foundation Housing and having held senior roles in housing organisations across Australia and the UK, Jenny has a thorough understanding of the current issues facing the Community Housing sector in WA.

Mark Atkinson - Director & Fellow of Australian College of Strata Lawyers
Mark started working in strata law in 1995. He is the legal director of Atkinson Legal, WA’s only specialist strata law firm, and Residential Property Partner of the Property Council WA Division.  Mark is a Fellow of the Australian College of Strata Lawyers and a long-term member of the Property Law Committee of the Law Society. He was also a founding director of Strata Community Australia Ltd and a president and long-term councillor of Strata Community Australia (WA). Mark and his team are heavily involved in the WA strata reform process.

Caroline Larcher – Development Manager, Women’s Property Initiative
In Caroline's 10 years with WPI, she has been largely responsible for the growth of WPI’s housing portfolio from 19 houses to a current total of 83 houses and apartments, with more in development. Caroline’s oversees all aspects of WPI's projects including initiation and development, funding, construction management, and all project reporting and compliance requirements. Prior to her decade at WPI, she worked for many years in consulting engineering companies in Melbourne, Hong Kong, and the UK and has also worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Russia, West Africa, and East Timor.

Tracy Longo - National Operations Manager, Homes for Homes
(a social enterprise from Big Issue)
After 5-years with one of Australia’s fastest growing property tech start-up businesses PEXA, Tracy joined the team at Homes for Homes in 2018.
Homes for Homes raises new funding to increase the supply of social and affordable housing via voluntary tax-deductible donations on property transactions - addressing a social and affordable housing gap which is projected to grow to over 600,000 houses by 2030.

Kirsty Moore - Executive Director Products & Markets, Indigenous Business Australia (IBA)
IBA provides advice, business support and finance to eligible Indigenous business owners. Kirsty's role drives alignment across IBA's programs to support growth of the business. She was previously head of both Business Development and Asset Management Directorates of the WA Housing Authority with responsibility for the $14.5bn WA social housing asset portfolio, Keystart Home Loans funding, shared equity program and affordable housing development. 

Stuart Clarke – Director, Social Housing Policy, Housing Authority (WA)
Stuart has over 25 years of experience in the Western Australian public sector, working as an economist, business analyst, policy officer and senior leader.  Stuart’s passionate about reform of the social housing system, impact measurement and responses to homelessness and the development of the community housing sector.  He is currently in charge of the Assisted Rental Pathways Pilot (SHIP) project, which will explore an innovative, service-focused package to offer eligible social housing tenants and waitlist applicants supported opportunities in the private rental market.

Steph Shorter - Manager, North West (WA) Aboriginal Housing Fund
Steph manages a $200 Million Fund that aims to create pathways towards social and economic independence and well-being for Aboriginal people in the Pilbara and Kimberley. The Fund invests in programs that will increase affordable, suitable and stable housing options, increase opportunities for educational attainment and job stability and empower Aboriginal people and communities. Steph has 12 years experience across the private, public and social sector in the UK and Australia, in roles such as the Director at Social Venture Australia, Senior Manager for Deloitte and Strategy Manager for Cancer Research UK.

Alex Houlston - Director, BOOMPower
Alex is a passionate social entrepreneur and Director and Co-Founder of BOOMPower, a SaaS platform streamlining the delivery of small to medium scale energy projects across the NFP and community housing sector. The platform includes automated energy modeling of smart meter data and instant business case reports, integrated with a competitive procurement platform.

Lisa Anne Halton - Architect & Strategic Advisor, Bieundurry Designs
Bieundurry Designs is an Aboriginal social enterprise addressing the entrenched problem of culturally inappropriate housing leading to a spectrum of poor social and financial outcomes.  It delivers housing and town planning design that ensures that Indigenous Australians can live according to their cultural lore and spending on housing is cost-effective. Lisa has over 17 years’ experience in the design and construction sector delivering over $400 million in projects across Europe, North America and Australia. She is an expert in Golden Ratio design principles which demonstrably create connectivity and well-being.

Kylie Hansen - Founding Executive Director, Impact Seed
Kylie has 15-years experience across government, corporate, and social finance sectors with organisations such as Deloitte, WACOSS and various government agencies.  An experienced social entrepreneur and impact investment practitioner, Kylie founded Impact Seed in 2015 as WA’s only social impact investment and measurement capacity builder. She works with stakeholders across the community, social finance and government sectors to develop frameworks, programs, policy and funding to support the development of an impact investment and measurement ecosystem in WA.