Inside June at Community Housing Futures WA, the guidelines, the lessons, and the moment before launch

There’s a particular kind of energy that builds in the weeks before something opens. Not the energy of the launch itself, but the quieter, more deliberate energy of getting everything right before the doors swing open.

That’s what June looked like at Community Housing Futures WA team.

By the time this blog is published, Round 1 of the Business Advisory Grants will be open. Applications will be invited from registered, emerging and Aboriginal-led community housing organisations across Western Australia, with grants of up to $50,000 excluding GST available to support capability building across key areas of organisational growth. The opening date is important. The work that happened before it matters as well.

June was about making sure the program was ready to support organisations that are already doing important work across the social and affordable housing system, often in complex operating environments, and often with increasing expectations around growth, delivery, governance and partnerships.

The Guidelines: Clarity Is a Form of Respect

On 3 June, Community Housing Futures WA released the Business Advisory Grant Guidelines and application template for Round 1. The guidelines confirm the program’s core capability focus areas: Finance, Business Planning, Asset Management and Risk Management. Registration Assistance is also available for organisations working towards community housing registration or a tier upgrade.

The grant can support professional advisory services, internal project roles, systems and digital tools, and minor delivery costs connected to the approved project. The guidelines also set out the program exclusions, including general operating costs, capital works and retrospective spending. For community housing organisations across Western Australia, this round provides a practical opportunity to invest in the systems, planning, governance and evidence base needed to support growth, partnerships and delivery in the social and affordable housing space.

Enter PAXON: What “Making the Most of Your Grant” Actually Means

Mid-June brought one of the most energising sessions of the month, an information webinar with Michael Palassis of PAXON Group, a specialist financial and commercial advisory firm deeply embedded in the social and affordable housing sector.

Michael didn’t talk about how to fill in a form. He talked about how to plan.

His framing was simple but it reframes the whole exercise: a grant isn’t a one-off cost to cover, it’s catalytic capital to deploy. The difference matters enormously. Spent as a cost, it pays for something and the impact stops there. Deployed as capital, it’s leveraged, used deliberately to build the case for further investment, attract a co-funding partner, or unlock work that wouldn’t otherwise be fundable at all.

He offered organisations seven questions to test a project idea against before applying,  is it aligned to growth? Does it go beyond business-as-usual? Will it add value you can actually point to afterwards? Does it combine your internal knowledge with external expertise rather than replace one with the other? Is it catalytic, will it unlock something bigger than itself? Is it genuinely hard to fund any other way? And critically, does it lift not just your organisation, but the sector around you?

Then came the line that’s stuck with everyone who heard it: EMILY: Early Money Is Like Yeast. Get funding in early, and it doesn’t just sit there. It rises. It activates other funding, other partnerships, other momentum that wouldn’t otherwise exist.

That’s the mindset shift we hope every applicant brings to their project scoping: not just what this grant can deliver, but what it can set in motion.

The Approved Supplier List

On 22 June, the BA Approved Supplier List went live, a register of advisors pre-vetted by the CHFWA team against professional standards, insurance requirements, and cultural safety criteria.

This is a practical feature of the program. Community housing organisations know their own communities, tenants, assets, priorities and ambitions. The Approved Supplier List is there to make one part of the process easier by giving applicants access to a pool of advisors with relevant experience and an understanding of the social and affordable housing context. Organisations are still able to choose the advisor that best fits their needs. The list is designed to support informed decision-making and reduce the time involved in identifying suitable advisory support.

For some projects, the right external expertise may help translate internal knowledge into a stronger financial model, asset plan, risk framework, business case, registration pathway or system improvement. The best advisory work starts from respect for what organisations already know, then helps them build the tools, evidence and structures needed for the next stage.

Behind the Scenes: Building a fair assessment process

Less visible, but just as important, June was also when our independent Grant Panel came together, five members combining lived experience of housing need, community housing industry expertise, and a government perspective, brought on to assess applications with fairness, consistency and transparency.

We ran a full orientation session to walk the panel through the assessment criteria, the scoring approach, probity obligations, and how moderation works. It’s a process designed so that no single voice, including ours, determines who gets funded. The panel reviews and recommends; an independent Steering Committee, who endorsed the program’s rules in the first place, provides final sign-off.

What June showed us

June showed us that the community housing sector is ready to engage, ask the right questions and think carefully about what comes next. There were many conversations throughout the month. There were thoughtful questions, practical discussions and a real sense of excitement about what the Business Advisory Grants could help make possible.

For Community Housing Futures WA, that is the most encouraging part. This program is not only about funding individual projects. It is about supporting organisations to strengthen the foundations they need for future growth, partnerships and delivery. As Round 1 opens, we are looking forward to seeing the applications come through and learning more about the priorities, ambitions and next steps being shaped across the community housing industry in Western Australia.

Applications Open 1 July

If you’re part of a registered, emerging, or Aboriginal-led community housing organisation in Western Australia, Round 1 of the Business Advisory Grants opens 1 July 2026 and closes 15 July 2026 at 5pm AWST. Up to $50,000 (excl. GST) is available to engage specialist advisory support across Finance, Business Planning, Asset Management, Risk Management, or Registration Assistance.

Read the full Grant Guidelines, browse the Approved Supplier List, and download the application template at chfwa.org.au.

Have a question before you apply? The program team is here to help reach out at team@chfwa.org.au or call 0475 409 667. Community Housing Futures WA is administered by Shelter WA and supported by the WA State Government.