Policies and guidelines for community housing providers
The new Social Housing Policy is effective from 14 September 2026
Current Community Housing policies
The following Community Housing policies, checklists and guidelines are effective until 14 September 2026.
From 14 September 2026, the new Social Housing Policy 2026 is to be used by all funded Community Housing Providers delivering social housing services in Queensland; noting implementation may continue over an extended period.
Community Housing Providers who have any questions are to contact their Contract Manager.
- Social housing program specifications (PDF, 1.4MB) (Effective from 1 July 2024)
- Social housing eligibility criteria (PDF, 127KB)
- Community housing tenancy management policy (PDF, 307KB)
- Allocations Policy for funded social housing providers (PDF, 275KB)
- Community housing rent policy 2024 (PDF, 163KB)
Outlines rent settings for community housing tenants. However, please check your community housing providers individual rent policy. - Allowable expenditure policy (PDF, 306KB)
- Data and reporting framework for funded housing and homelessness services (DOCX, 878KB)
Guideline for providers to understand the reporting and data collection requirements for funded programs - 2024 Community Housing Rent Policy (PDF, 162KB)
- 2024 Community Housing Rent Policy Guideline (PDF, 355KB)
Checklists and guidelines
- Community housing rent policy guideline (PDF, 356KB)
This guideline should be read with the Community housing rent policy 2024 The Guideline provides details on how rent is to be calculated. - Natural disaster management for community housing guideline (PDF, 146KB)
Information on natural disaster recovery for community housing - Practice guide – testing and remediating: clandestine drug laboratories and drug contamination in dwellings used for community housing services (PDF, 240KB) (RTF, 1.1MB)
To help providers develop their own procedures to respond to potential health risks associated with clandestine drug laboratories - Upgrades and provider upgrades to community housing (including crisis accommodation) properties (PDF, 225KB)
Process for upgrading department-owned or non-department-owned community housing properties - Practice guide—notification of community housing property vacancy (PDF, 266KB) (RTF, 260KB)
To use when using the 'Notification of vacancy form' to understand how to give information to the department - Transfers checklist for providers (PDF, 863KB) (RTF, 435KB)
Use when processing a transfer application - Tenant guide—transitional housing
For providers to give to applicants when making an offer of transitional housing - Nominations process (PDF, 88KB)
Advice on the nominations process in the Allocations Policy for Funded Social Housing Providers
New Social Housing Policy 2026 for funded Community Housing Providers
The policy, guidelines and forms will be effective from 14 September 2026. These apply to all Community Housing Providers who have a capital funding, lease agreement or service funding agreement with the State.
Some policies only apply to Community Housing Providers in a Master Agreement with the State.
Key changes
- One Policy: the new Social Housing Policy for funded Community Housing Providers (PDF, 994KB) is one document, with 11 policies under it. These include:
- Social Housing Policy
- Social Housing Eligibility Criteria
- Social Housing Rent Policy
- Social Housing Allocations Policy
- Social Housing Tenancy Policy
- Social Housing Allowable Expenditure Policy
- Master Agreement Expenditure Policy (Master Agreement only)
- Social Housing Asset Management Policy
- Social Housing Services Funding Requirements (Master Agreement only)
- Ancillary Housing Services Funding Requirements (Master Agreement only)
- Performance and Reporting Framework
- Social Housing Program Specifications: are replaced as the funding agreements and policy now contain the core requirements and all operational elements are in the Social Housing Guidelines.
- One Social Housing Program: we’ve removed references to all sub social housing programs and replaced these with specified policy settings for General Social Housing and Affordable Housing.
- Affordable Housing: we’ve removed references to NRAS (National Rental Affordability Scheme) and introduced Queensland-based, household income and liquid asset thresholds.
- Performance and Reporting Framework: we’ve streamlined reporting requirements and committed to formally reporting back to Providers on performance.
Enquiries
Email us for further information about the Social Housing Policy changes.