Crucial road ahead outlined for housing and homelessness
A momentous step forward to improve the Sunshine Coast’s housing and homelessness response has been outlined in the Sunshine Coast Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2023.
Council is helping to shape its future housing and homelessness response across the Sunshine Coast at a local level underpinned by five key pillars – delivery, facilitation, advocacy, building capacity and building our knowledge.
Council’s key priorities include:
- utilising Council land and/or buildings as affordable residential housing options for key workers currently being displaced by escalating rents and prices for housing*
- discounting fees and concessions for community organisations
- supporting community-led initiatives
- facilitating the efforts of the State Government and community housing providers to deliver social and affordable housing projects.
Sunshine Coast Council Mayor Mark Jamieson said, like many regions in south east Queensland and across Australia, the Sunshine Coast was experiencing significant housing affordability challenges and increased levels of homelessness.
“Council recognises the housing crisis is a situation that is difficult to quickly rectify,” Mayor Jamieson said.
“All tiers of government – local, state and federal – as well as the private sector, including relevant industry associations and peak bodies, and community housing organisations need a plan to work together to effectively address the current situation.
“The Sunshine Coast Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2023 will help build on our existing commitments and provide support for our community.
“The plan outlines new initiatives directed at achieving a more secure housing future for our community and sets out how Council can contribute to more diverse, affordable living outcomes and reduce the impacts and risk of homelessness in our region.
“One delivery action I’m glad to announce is that Council is investigating partnership delivery models to deliver affordable and key worker housing through multiple dwelling units on Council land.
“Preliminary project scopes have been prepared, and these projects are intended to be submitted to the State and Federal Governments as funding opportunities arise.
“Council has and will continue to support community-led initiatives being developed on the Sunshine Coast such as Sleepbus, Roofs to Recovery, and a community-led initiative utilising vacant units for women’s transitional housing in Nambour.
“Council has also invested in a web-based tool, available to the community, which provides statistics on housing affordability and availability. The Housing Monitor presents the statistics in the form of tables and graphs and provides this information for a range of Sunshine Coast geographies, households and income types.
“We recognise that housing affordability is a critical issue on the Sunshine Coast which is affected by a range of factors.”
Community Portfolio Councillor David Law said currently one in three mortgagees and almost half of all renters were in housing stress, paying more than 30 per cent of their gross income on mortgage or rental repayments**.
“While Council cannot control all elements of housing in our region, it’s a high priority in our planning,” Cr Law said.
“We’re working with the public, private and community sectors to encourage delivery of responsive housing and a range of different housing types and costs in the right locations to cater for households of all sizes and incomes.
“Council has been actively advocating, planning and facilitating housing and community support services consistently for a number of years.
“We are committed to working alongside all levels of government, industry and businesses to take collaborative action.
BlueCHP is an organisation working on the Sunshine Coast and aims to provide affordable and subsidised housing solutions to disadvantaged individuals and households experiencing housing stress, including key workers, seniors and those at risk of homelessness in our community.
BlueCHP’s Executive Manager Darren Mew congratulated Sunshine Coast Council for its Housing and Homelessness Action Plan.
“The plan contains many practical initiatives including a focus on capturing local government's investment, in perpetuity, through community housing providers,” Mr Mew said.
“It’s great to see another local government adopting proactive and ambitious strategies to accelerate affordable and social housing supply.
“BlueCHP is pleased to be actively working on the Sunshine Coast and across Queensland and we look forward to ongoing partnerships with Sunshine Coast Council."
For more than 35 years, Q Shelter has worked as a peak body to improve housing outcomes for Queenslanders. Q Shelter works collaboratively to influence solutions to housing need and homelessness.
Q Shelter Manager Jackson Hills said Q Shelter acknowledged the great work of Sunshine Coast Council and sector partners to develop the first Housing and Homelessness Action Plan for the Local Government Area.
“With a backdrop of record high rents, record low availability and an increasing number of individuals and families in housing stress or experiencing homelessness, there has never been a more important time to bring a spotlight to these issues at the local level,” Mr Hills said.
“The action plan goes further than that though, assigning a suite of actions and focus areas for solutions, and ensuring the Sunshine Coast is well positioned to take advantage of State and Federal Government funding coming online right now.”
The action plan focuses on five key activities to improve the housing response at the local level:
- Delivery – by demonstrating and doing, including in partnership
- Facilitation – by improving pathways and processes
- Advocacy – by urging through engagement
- Building Capacity – by strengthening relationships, skills, processes and resources
- Building our Knowledge – to gain information and strengthen understanding
The action plan was endorsed at Council’s July 27 Ordinary Meeting.
View the Sunshine Coast Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2023 on Council’s website.
At a glance, Sunshine Coast Council:
- is investigating and scoping the development of dwelling houses and secondary dwellings on underutilised Council land, for temporary and or long-term use
- is exploring delivery models to deliver affordable and key worker housing (Multiple Dwelling units) on Council controlled land assets
- applies a 100 per cent general rate concession on land owned and directly used for a not-for-profit activity by community groups and not for profit organisations
- successfully advocated to the State Government for funding for an Assertive Outreach worker for people experiencing homelessness (advocacy)
- is working with the Department of Housing on providing temporary or crisis accommodation for families or persons in need as identified from time to time by the department
- provides financial support to not-for-profit sector in the form of reduced development application fees, infrastructure charges rebate and general rate concessions.
- resolved to amend the fees associated with a permit for a temporary home under Council’s Local Laws.
FAST FACTS
- The main causes of homelessness include a lack of social and affordable housing, low rental vacancy rate, domestic and family violence, financial stress and physical, mental health and addiction.
- The number of people estimated experiencing homelessness has increased by 54 per cent from 785 in 2016 to 1,205 in 2021 (ABS Census 2016 & 2021).
- The rental vacancy rate on the Sunshine Coast as of January 2023 was 1 per cent, which is three to four times less than the rate considered suitable.
- The Sunshine Coast has a lower proportion of social housing (2 per cent of total residential dwellings in June 2022) compared to 3.6 per cent for SEQ and the state average 4.2%.
Visit Council's website for more information
*Sunshine Coast Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2023 has a focus on delivery activities.
An audit has been completed, with sites identified for further investigation and scoping to identify the potential form of affordable housing for our key workers.
To facilitate the construction and supply of these affordable homes, Council will endeavour to seek opportunities through funding that may become available from the State and/or Federal Government.
The State Government recently released Housing Investment Fund opportunities for privately owned sites for the delivery of social and/or affordable housing developments.
Under this funding release, Council was eligible to submit proposals for State Government consideration.
The Housing Investment Fund is one of three programs offered by the State Government under the Queensland Housing Investment Growth Initiative.
The HIF was boosted to $2 billion by the State Government in 2022 to support a revised target of 5,600 social and affordable home commencements across Queensland by June 2027.
Council will endeavour to develop partnerships with Community Housing Providers to further advance the delivery of affordable and key worker housing.
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