Australia's peak body for low-income households has welcomed Labor's $350 million plan to boost affordable homes, despite the Greens labelling it "a complete joke" and a "con job".
The Albanese government will spend that money on 20,000 affordable homes, co-investing with super funds and institutional investors and working with the states and territories.
A Housing Australia Future Fund would provide a further 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years.
It's part of the government's larger plan to build one million "well-located" homes by the end of the decade.
National Shelter chief executive Emma Greenhalgh labelled the plan "heartening" but said more must be done to back those doing it tough.
"The government must ensure the one million homes that will be delivered will help those on the lowest incomes and those experiencing housing difficulties," she said.
"Being able to secure housing that people can afford is vital to maintaining the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
"It's disappointing there has been no review or increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance or income support payments, when we know housing is unaffordable right now."
Unions also welcomed the accord, saying the injection would help ease upwards pressure on house prices and rent.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions says the use of superannuation funds to leverage private investment would create greater returns for their customers.
Assistant secretary Scott Connolly said unions would continue to fight to ensure the investment stemming from the accord helps provide safe and secure construction jobs as well.
But Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather pointed out the private sector had already built a million homes in the past five years.
"These homes would have been built anyway," he said.
"The housing accord looks like a complete con job. Planning deregulation and handouts to the private sector to build housing won't fix the housing crisis.
"The treasurer couldn't even bring himself to call them affordable, instead calling them 'well-located homes'."
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the timing of the housing plan was deliberate in that there were labour shortages in the building industry, inflation when it came to building materials and a long pipeline of existing work.
"So we want to start in 2024 when that pipeline is expected to trail away a little bit," he told the National Press Club.
In the interim, he said a $33 billion increase in the budget's spending on payments and pensions would flow through to rental assistance and other support.
The rise in the minimum wage would also provide some relief.
"Those two things working together, indexation and a minimum wage increase, we hope, makes it a little bit easier - not enough, but a little bit easier."
