The Mount Alexander Affordable Housing Trust

MAAHT Pty Ltd is the appointed Trustee of the Mount Alexander Affordable Housing Trust. 

It was set up by Middle Ground Housing Australia Ltd specifically to manage the Trust. 

The inaugural board of MAAHT Pty Ltd includes Nicola Foxworthy, Tim Riley and Erin Dolan.  The Trustee is currently adding more skills and experience to the board and expects to finalise the board’s membership by the end of 2026. 

TIM RILEY  

Tim Riley has more than 20 years’ experience in medium-density housing development. He is the founder of Property Collectives, a community-led Developer and Advisor. Since 2010 Tim has been responsible for developing 90 homes, worth over $100m, via a community-led group build (baugruppen) housing model, which received The Urban Developer Award for Excellence in Commercial Innovation in 2018.  

Tim is also a co-founder Middle Ground Housing, an incubator for a new model of cooperative housing that provides secure, sustainable cost-stabilised homes for Australians locked out of homeownership.  

NICOLA FOXWORTHY  

Nicola Foxworthy has more than 20 years’ experience working in affordable housing, including executive roles in community housing and the Victorian public service.  

She has strong knowledge of housing policy, funding and regulation and has led the design and delivery of Social, Affordable and co-operative housing programs. 

Nicola is the Founding Director of Imagine Housing, a consultancy focused on new and collaborative housing models. She is also a co-founder of Middle Ground Housing, an incubator for a new model of cooperative housing, a Director of community housing provider Haven Home Safe, and a sessional member of Planning Panels Victoria.  

ERIN DOLAN  

Erin has nearly 25 years of experience managing grants and using philanthropy to support positive community change. Her work has focused on areas such as homelessness, housing, family violence and access to justice.  

Erin has worked with a range of charitable trusts and has helped shape the growing field of impact investing in Australia. She founded the Affordable Housing Funders Network through Philanthropy Australia.  

In 2024, Erin received a Churchill Fellowship to study international housing funds. Her report, Affordable Housing Foundations, was published in January 2026. Erin now works to turn these ideas into action to help address Australia's housing crisis. 

The Mount Alexander Shire community will own the trust. The trust aims to address the needs of our community and therefore belongs to our community. It is managed on our community’s behalf by the Trustee, in cooperation with the locally appointed Advisory Committee.

Many different forms of housing are possible through the trust, such as:

• Community housing – rental housing for residents on very low to moderate incomes
• Independent and retirement living – secure rental housing for older residents, younger residents or people living with disability
• Co-housing – private living space with shared common facilities
• Cooperative housing – a group of residents who work together to manage the housing
• Community land organisations – residents build their own homes on long-term land leases

The trust will provide long term leases to other charitable organisations who will then deliver and manage affordable housing on trust land.

Charitable organisations can partner with the trust if they provide long term affordable rental housing. 

If the trust gets to a point of having enough rental housing to meet local needs, it may also choose to partner with organisations who facilitate home ownership for eligible recipients, while the land itself continues to be owned by the trust.

The trust will serve the Mount Alexander Shire community and has broad eligibility criteria.

Residents eligible for trust housing include, but are not limited to, the following people:

• Residents living in poverty
• Residents experiencing family violence
• Ageing residents
• Residents with disability
• Residents with health issues
• First Nations residents
• Residents struggling to afford private market housing (including working people)

As a charity, the trust can raise funds in a few ways. This includes fundraising, accepting donations and applying for government grants.

The Trust may also earn income by leasing some of its land for housing at market rates.  These rentals would be to people who need housing, can afford market rent, but can’t find suitable options locally.   Income from these rentals would help support the Trust’s affordable housing work while also meeting other housing needs in the shire.