Cairns Sister urges councillors to keep the faith in retirement villages
A pastoral leader in Cairns has urged councillors to show compassion towards elderly pensioners facing the prospect of homelessness should a major rate rise be approved.
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A pastoral leader in Cairns has urged councillors to show compassion towards elderly pensioners facing the prospect of homelessness should a major rate rise be approved.
But Cairns Regional Council says it will be up to retirement village owners to determine whether it passes on a projected price hike of more than 800 per cent onto its residents in the future.
Sister Faye Kelly joined around 40 village residents outside Cairns Regional Council to protest the increase that is expected to impact hundreds of seniors across the region.
The Sisters of Mercy member said some retirement homes in Cairns had been built specifically to accommodate disadvantaged pensioners with limited means to support themselves.
“I believe that the council’s memory of that story has been lost,” Sr Kelly RSM said.
“The council established in faith with the community that they would be rated in a particular way that meant their living was sustainable going forward.
“The council should recognise that retirement villages are supporting them in seeing that seniors have affordable and sustainable accommodation.”
The former St Joseph’s Primary School principal in Parramatta Park said many pensioners would go homeless if the rates increase was introduced.
“If you’re taking away sustainable housing that is functional, operational and viable … you just make the need greater,” Sr Kelly said.
“We’re never going to have equality for everybody but if we take away something that is good and working then we’ll only make the void greater.
“There are people who’ve spoken to me and said they don’t know where they’ll go (if the rates go up).”
A council spokesman said that while retirement villages were once owned by community organisations, many are now run and operated by major investment groups.
“Land lease communities, retirement homes and relocatable homes are a growing housing option that extends on traditional freehold and strata title housing provision,” the spokesman said.
“They offer independent homes and in some cases are available to all demographics and in other cases occupancy may be limited to over 50s.
“They often contain substantial fully self-sufficient dwellings, capable of accommodating couples or families, and to that extent, are comparable to free-standing homes or strata titled apartments.”
But for seniors, who in many cases invested almost all of their life savings into retirement village accommodation, the added cost of living pressures associated with a rates spike could push many out of their homes.
“People have made known to me that they’re holding on by the skin of their teeth,” Sr Kelly said.
“They are there because they can afford what it is at the moment. There will be people who cannot pay any increase.”
The council said the majority of pensioners are occupying dwellings to which the minimum general rate already applies.
Around 640 dwellings are expected to be impacted by the proposed rate rise.
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Originally published as Cairns Sister urges councillors to keep the faith in retirement villages
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