The last Council meeting of this Council is tomorrow, Wednesday 14/8. Both Greens Councillors, Jennie Fenton and Dominic King, are holding the Council to account for the lack of action over the term of this Council. Dominic has tabled a Motion about the Court House in Bellingen. And Jennie has tabled the following Motion about affordable housing. This is a great example of the work that the Greens Councillors do as our elected representatives.
9 NOTICE OF MOTION
Item 9.1
Subject Notice of Motion – Cr Fenton – Homes for Our Future, Progress
Presented by Cr Fenton
RECOMMENDATION
That Council:
• Note the adoption of the Bellingen Shire Local Housing Strategy (2020-2040) by Council on 29 January 2020.
• Receive a report by June 2025 outlining progress on the 67 actions listed within the Bellingen Shire Local Housing Strategy 2020-2040, as the Bellingen Shire Housing Strategy Action Plan.
• Note the declaration by Council of a crisis in both housing affordability and availability made on May 26, 2021 (Item 7.1 at the Ordinary Meeting).
• Receive a report by June 2025 outlining progress on the items outlined in the above declaration on May 26, 2021.
• Note the acceptance by Council of the local Housing Crisis (declared on May 26, 2021) progressing to a housing emergency on February 22, 2023 (Item 9.2 at the Ordinary Meeting).
• Receive a report by June 2025 outlining progress on the items outlined in the above recommendation on February 22, 2023.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
As residents of the Bellingen Shire continue to experience severe housing stress across a number of demographics, locations and situations, an update is sought on how the organisation (and the community) is tracking in terms of implementing strategies and actions from Council’s own planning documents, as well as from recent key decisions of Council around housing, and affordable housing in particular. Affordable housing has remained one of the most pressing issues in the Shire and has continued to impact a broader range of individuals and organisations.
Background
Bellingen Shire Local Housing Strategy (2020-2040) was adopted by Council on 29 January 2020 (and subsequently given final approval by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry & Environment on 15 April 2020). This strategy is available at this link: https://www.bellingen.nsw.gov.au/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/files/planning/housing/bellingen-shire-local-housing-strategy-2020-2040.pdf
Of particular interest in this strategy is progress against Action 1.1 which set Housing Diversity Goals of at least 50% of new homes (built 2020-2040) to be diverse housing types. Diverse housing types are defined as granny flats, dual occupancies (attached and detached), townhouses, terraces, villas, flats and detached homes on lots smaller than 600m2, as opposed to conventional detached housing (single homes on lots 600m2 and larger). Also of strong interest are both the progress on the Employment Lands Strategy and the Rural Lands Strategy, since the Housing strategy (and the award winning process during which is was developed) promoted each as an important part of housing puzzle in Bellingen Shire. And the actions that relate to specific housing-vulnerable groups within the community are also of great importance to see progress on. These groups include people with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people, key workers and older people.
On May 26, 2021, Council declared the Shire to be experiencing a crisis in both housing affordability and availability.
This can be read in full at the link below:
https://bellingen.civicclerk.com.au/web/UserControls/pdf/web/DocPDFWrapper.aspx?ar=1959
The unanimously accepted recommendations included declaring crisis conditions, as well as calling upon State & Federal Governments to urgently fund increased investment in social housing in the Shire, and exploring urgent short-term opportunities to address the immediate housing crisis such as temporary or modular housing options provided on government land.
The recommendations also called for support for local solutions such as such as a Housing Hub, The Bellorana project, unhosted Air BnB investigation and a Community Land Trust. Parts of this recommendation have been progressed but not reported in full back to Council and the wider community.
On February 22, 2023, Council accepted the local Housing Crisis (declared on May 26, 2021) had progressed to a housing emergency. The link to the decision is at:
https://bellingen.civicclerk.com.au/web/Player.aspx?id=505&key=-1&mod=-1&mk=-1&nov=0
Parts of this motion/ recommendation referred to using disaster and emergency planning provisions to attempt to ease the short term house stress. This was reported back to Council and Community on May 24, 2023 (as Item 10.1), available at: https://bellingen.civicclerk.com.au/web/Player.aspx?id=537&key=-1&mod=-1&mk=-1&nov=0
The remainder of this motion and it’s recommendations have not to date been reported back to Council or to the wider community.”
General Manager’s Comment
Should the Council resolve as proposed by Councillor Fenton, the reports can be prepared as outlined.