Cumberland Council has target for 28,000 extra homes
A western Sydney community is fighting a State Government demand to provide a “mind boggling” 28,000 extra homes while it grapples with a housing crisis among NSW’s poorest residents.
Parramatta
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Cumberland Council has slammed a State Government housing target to provide a “mind boggling” 28,000 extra dwellings over the next 20 years — but neglects to address more services such as schools and transport.
The council urged the community to have a say on the draft Cumberland Local Housing Strategy while it is open for feedback until March 31.
The report is part of the Central City District Plan, which includes other western Sydney councils such as Parramatta.
Our Local Community councillor Paul Garrard sprayed the report for failing to address major community issues.
“All they’re concerned about is ensuring that the Cumberland area gets another 28,000 dwellings, we’ve already got 60,000 in the area now, maybe 70, (000),’’ he said.
“There’s not that much effort in this document about transport. I don’t see anybody telling us how many schools we’re going to get.
“Where do you go when you want to get to a medical facility? I wonder.”
Labor councillor Lisa Lake said the community was shocked the council would be expected to allow 28,000 more dwellings.
“It was mind boggling and beyond them to see how we could fit that number of dwellings into the Cumberland LGA,’’ she said.
“You look at what we’re doing in thetown centres along the railway line, and the residential development that’s being rezoned along those railway lines, and that’s only a small fraction of the 28,000 so I don’t know where all these extra dwellings are going to go.”
Cr Lake called for the “incomplete” report to address affordable rental housing.
She cited figures that stated homelessness in Cumberland had increased dramatically by 122 per cent from 2011 to 2016 compared with 37 per cent for NSW — a “far higher rate than the greater Sydney average’’.
There were 3244 homeless people in the local government area in 2016 and another 4327 people who are marginally housed because they lived in “severely overcrowded dwellings”.
“We have an emergency in Cumberland,’’ she said.
“It is a housing crisis and it’s the poorest of our community and the most vulnerable who are suffering so I think it’s really important that our local housing strategy acknowledges this and takes on some concrete objectives for us to deal with in the near future.’’
However, Liberal councillor Ned Attie said affordable renting was a fallacy.
“What we should be looking at is affordable housing ownership, not renting,’’ he said.
“If you can afford to rent the house, you can afford to actually buy the house and that’s how you place people in properties where they can actually have an appreciating asset rather than just paying rent for the rest of their lives.”
● haveyoursay.cumberland.nsw.gov.au