Affordable homes strategy to be discussed at Central Coast Council

The need for more affordable housing on the Central Coast is clear but there’s no easy fix. Incentives for developers, land rezoning in some suburbs and more boarding houses could be on the way.

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Central Coast Council’s willingness to deal with the region’s growing affordable housing crisis will be tested at a meeting on Monday night when a new strategy will be discussed.

The far reaching affordable housing strategy was prompted by an alarming 35% increase in homelessness on the Central Coast between 2011 and 2016 and the revelation that in 2016 around 24,000 local households were experiencing “housing stress”.

Tents set up by the homeless around Woy Woy. Picture: AAP Image/Sue Graham.

It aims to deliver the 7000 extra affordable homes expected to be needed on the Central Coast by 2036 through a combination of direct action, planning policies, and early intervention.

The proposal was on public exhibition for a 103 days and attracted 441 written submissions both for and against.

A petition with 1718 signatures supporting the new strategy was also received.

On Monday night councillors will be asked to consider possible tweaks to the strategy based on community feedback — including concerns about the suburbs earmarked as most suitable for more affordable housing, fears about more boarding houses being built and worries that giving affordable housing concessions to developers could ultimately end up changing the character of some suburbs.

Talia Chambers at 28 Chambers Place Woy Woy is the latest step in solving the Central Coasts serious affordable housing shortage.

For the most part — council staff have recommended staying with the affordable housing strategy as originally proposed and allowing each new building proposal to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis through the development application process.

A report to be tabled at the meeting makes for disturbing reading, detailing a spiralling disaster of housing insecurity across the region.

■ There has been no proportional growth in private rental stock in the Central Coast LGA since 2006 and the amount of social housing has declined since 2011.

■ Only two per cent of rental stock on the Central Coast is affordable to very low income renters, but this group makes up 40% of all renters.

■ Rents for a one-bedroom unit grew at more than double the Sydney rate.

■ Virtually everyone who moved into the Central Coast LGA since 2011 came from greater Sydney and 90 per cent of those were retirees and families on low and very low incomes.

Artist's impression of a proposed affordable housing development at 6-10 Dunleigh Street Toukley.

The strategy to begin dealing with these kinds of problems includes direct actions like partnering with housing organisation to build affordable housing on council-owned land, and indirect actions like giving concessions and incentives to developers to provide affordable housing stock, and early intervention to stop people reaching housing crisis point.

What is affordable?

Housing is considered to be affordable when people on very low, low and moderate incomes can cover housing costs with enough left over for basics such as food, clothing, transport, health care and education. It is generally accepted that if housing costs more than 30 per cent of gross household income, it’s not affordable.

Affordable housing is already a huge problem on the Central Coast.

Why is a strategy needed?

According to the strategy documents, while Central Coast housing is still cheaper than Sydney on average, local incomes are much lower than average because of the high number of pensioners, large numbers of low income renters and the influx of low income households trying to escape high housing costs in Sydney and have a better lifestyle. Throw in generally high levels of disadvantage, especially in the former Wyong LGA ad you have a recipe for problems. The consultants who prepared the strategy estimated that the average cost to the community of homelessness is between $48,000 and $70,000 per person per year — and that’s a conservative estimate. So far, free market forces have failed to deliver a solution to affordable housing, despite providing the vast majority of all housing in Australia.

Many people are moving from Sydney to the Central Coast adding to the homeless problems.

Where could it be built?

Council has assessed six locations where it owns land that would be suitable for affordable housing developments — including the town centres of Gosford, Wyong and Woy Woy, Toukley, Bateau Bay and The Entrance. Under the provisions of the strategy, three of these would be chosen which had good links to transport and services. Council could then team with a registered community housing provider to build affordable housing developments on those sites.

Rezoning

Another part of the strategy looks at rezoning suitable land in these locations to permit more affordable housing — which is prohibited in some cases by existing zonings. The usual development application process would then apply. This is one of the most contentious aspects of the strategy — attracting many submissions from people concerned about the negative impacts on the suburbs.

Controls

But affordable housing could end up being built anywhere under the strategy which could also offer height and size concessions to developers in return for including affordable housing within their developments. Other planning impediments to low coast housing could also be removed. For example the number of carparking spaces required in a development could be reduced to allow more dwellings, or if the development is close to transport. This might apply especially to boarding houses which could also be allowed to have more communal areas instead of individual kitchens etc. This would make them cheaper to construct and more attractive to private developers.