Lismore council unanimously votes in affordable housing strategy to address housing crisis

Lismore council has thrown its support behind a desperately needed affordable housing strategy – needed now more than ever after last year’s record flooding. Here’s the details.

Lismore City Council voted unanimously to adopt the housing strategy. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

Lismore City Council has thrown its support behind a much-anticipated and desperately needed affordable housing strategy which predates last year’s record flooding.

Councillors have voted unanimously at this week’s meeting to adopt the strategy after the council declared in 2021 there was “an emergency situation” when it came to housing availability and affordability.

Now, the situation is worse than ever after thousands of properties were damaged or destroyed by the floods.

The strategy is designed to stimulate “additional affordable and medium-density housing”, primarily in the urban area of Lismore, with supporting jobs, infrastructure and services.

The plan is for the equivalent of 40 per cent of all new housing in the Lismore LGA to be “diverse” or “medium density housing” and 15 per cent to be available to low and moderate income earners by 2033.

A Lismore property on March 31 last year. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts.

Councillor Elly Bird said housing was the “pointiest” problem the Lismore community was dealing with and the strategy had a “sense of urgency in it”.

“(The state government) need to lift their game in terms of providing housing for our community,” she said.

“But there’s actions in here that council can take, and are taking, to do what we can to come to the party and to progress on particular projects.

“It's pleasing to actually have some skin in the game and to be participating in helping to solve the housing crisis in our LGA for our community.”

Councillor Ekins said 82 per cent of the housing stock in Lismore was three or more bedrooms – unaffordable for many teachers, healthcare and retail workers “struggling to find accommodation”.

She said there was also a need to house workers instrumental in rebuilding Lismore after the floods, alongside existing community housing needs.

Many homes were damaged or destroyed in last year’s natural disasters. Picture: Bradley Richardson/ADF

It comes after the government’s housing task force found developers continued to build three bedroom houses despite the need for smaller housing.

“We know the development industry is very slow to respond and that‘s why councils need to step in and work with other partners like state government agencies and housing providers to actually meet the need,” Cr Ekins said.

She said there was more than 2000 blocks of land ready to develop housing.

“We just need to make sure that there’s the right incentives for people to build the housing that we need,” she said.

Housing affordability is an even bigger issue in Lismore after the floods. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts.

Councillor Andrew Gordon said people lived on the flood plains because they either “loved it” or because it was all they could afford.

He said if the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation offered a person a buyback they needed to provide affordable relocation options.

Councillor Adam Guise said the strategy was “long overdue”.

“It says that 15 per cent of all new housing will be affordable for low very low to moderate income categories. That’s only 15 per cent within 10 years,” Cr Guise said.

“I say that we should probably be thinking about doubling that and aiming for 30 per cent to actually keep in line with what our community can actually afford.”

Cr Guise said the strategy “may not be ambitious enough in terms of the dire housing crisis”.

Originally published as Lismore council unanimously votes in affordable housing strategy to address housing crisis