BOLD MOVE: More affordable housing step closer

Council goes where traditionally no council has gone before

General, generic photos of houses, housing estate development and suburbia at Kanimbla, an inner city suburb of Cairns. Picture: Brendan Radke.

COUNCIL has laid down a marker on affordable housing, making a generous "donation" to help a fund a new project.

Social housing has traditionally been the remit of State of Federal Governments, but on Tuesday Clarence Valley Council voted to "waive" the Section 64 funds of a multimillion-dollar development by Clarence Village Ltd. in South Grafton.

Section 64 funds relate to the provision of water and sewerage and council resolved to finance the $175,000 contribution from the Clarence Care and Support Reserve.

The project is by no means a done deal however, with the development of the 22 seniors affordable housing units dependent on Clarence Village securing over $3 million from the Federal Government's Building Better Regions Fund.

Responding to a question from Cr Debrah Novak council GM Ashley Lindsay said while there was potential it could be "setting a precedent" he pointed out council made decisions based on merit.

Cr Peter Ellem in moving the motion said Clarence Village Ltd had made a compelling case for waiving the section 64 funds, particularly as it had been "almost a quarter of a century" since any affordable housing had been built in Grafton.

"We have an ageing population and it is a bit of a ticking time bomb," he said.

"I don't think we are going to be overrun with applications of this nature, it is almost a rare opportunity to be part of this. This is for the battlers."

However Cr Andrew Baker took issue with the way the proposal had come "out of the blue and while acknowledging the "wonderful organisation and proposal", said there was no policy to justify it.

"If this application was made under some policy position that council had adopted … then I would have no objection to it," he said.

"It wasn't projected in any budget. We are saying we will take it out of a fund because the money will be available, but we don't know if it will be available."

"In all fairness to all of the community we should indicate how much money we have got to put out for this sort of business and what happens when it runs out."

Cr Arthur Lysaught said they would be helping some "incredible" people by supporting the motion and told of one elderly resident who "couldn't live" when her rental rose from just $100 to $300 and resulted in her moving into one of Clarence Village properties.

"If ever we were going to support a merit based decision I think this is one that deserves all the support in the world and I would like to commend our GM and director Schroder for bringing this forward.

"And if we do set a precedent, what a wonderful precedent, because we are investing in a very precious group within our community."

But Cr Karen Toms said while she thought what Clarence Village were doing was "commendable" she could not support what amounted to a large "donation".

"It's a donation, whether you like it or not. We are not waiving those funds we are going to pay it for them out of another reserve," she said.

"The fact someone can right a letter requesting such a large donation without providing any other information and then becomes a report to council with a recommendation to pay it concerns me a little bit."

"In a perfect world I would love nothing more than to waive the developer contribution fees from everyone who is going to put up low cost housing."

The motion was carried 6-2 with Cr Toms and Baker voting against. Cr Greg Clancy was absent.

Originally published as