‘I can’t find a place to live’: Unlikely alliance to help workers like Lou

Independent MPs and unions have formed an unlikely alliance to demand the Minns government deliver affordable housing for nurses, teachers and paramedics as part of its sweeping changes to planning laws.

The eight crossbenchers, including lower house speaker Greg Piper, and the union movement want a parliamentary inquiry into how the state government can deliver housing for essential workers.

Registered nurse Lou Housego says it is impossible to find housing close to her work.Credit: Wolter Peeters

In a joint letter sent to Premier Chris Minns on Friday, the MPs and unions, including those representing teachers, firefighters, police and health care workers, warn there is an “urgent need for NSW to increase the provision of essential worker housing across the state”.

“We note the government is working to increase housing supply across the state, but we are concerned that there are no clear strategies to ensure increased supply delivers new essential worker housing,” the letter, co-signed on Friday, says.

“Housing for those that keep our cities, regions and suburbs running continues to be a major concern for union members and constituents in independent-held electorates.

“Essential workers are often unable to find affordable accommodation close to work, and in some cases spend many hours commuting each way, at great cost to their health, safety, family and relationships.”

Affordable accommodation would be a lifeline for registered nurse Lou Housego, who has been staying with friends in the inner west since moving back to Sydney from Tamworth in November.

After working in the bush for about 15 years, the 67-year-old wanted to come back to her home city to be closer to friends, job opportunities and decent access to healthcare.

She accepts that rentals close to her work on the North Shore are out of her price bracket, but after months of turning up to inspections across Sydney with 50 or 60 other house hunters, Housego said she is running out of options and will probably leave the city once again.

“I’m now facing a situation where I’ve got a really good job, but I’m probably going to have to leave Sydney because I can’t find a place to live,” she said. “It’s constant, high-level stress … that lack of a roof over your head is extremely overwhelming.”

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said it was becoming impossible to find affordable housing for the people who keep schools, hospitals, councils and communities running.

“As the government continues to be rightly focused on increasing housing supply, we need to make sure that we bake into the planning process the delivery essential worker housing in a targeted way across the state,” Greenwich said.

“If you are a teacher, cleaner or police officer working in the city, your travel time to work can be well over an hour each way. That’s not good enough for a global city.”

Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said decent and affordable housing was “more than a question of social equity”.

“It’s also a burning economic priority, both for productivity and the retention of key workers,” Morey said. “This inquiry is a golden opportunity to examine the measures NSW could quickly implement to improve our desperate housing situation.”

He said it was also an opportunity to examine the “abysmal record of the Commonwealth.”

“Until recently this level of government showed very little interest in addressing the housing policy bonfire of skewed tax incentives and development bias, which locks young people, working families and renters out of the property market,” Morey said.

The MPs and unions want an inquiry to consider an appropriate definition for essential worker housing for the NSW Government to adopt and to investigate planning tools to deliver essential worker housing.

It should also identify priority areas for affordable accommodation for frontline workers and recommend targets for essential worker housing in new developments on government land.

A spokesperson for Premier Minns said: “Ensuring essential workers like our hardworking nurses, police officers, paramedics and teachers have a place to live, close to where they work, is front-of-mind for the NSW Government.

“We have a housing crisis in NSW and we all have a responsibility to do something about it – we can’t afford our essential workers leaving the state. We’re happy to work with anyone to ensure we can get supply moving and make homes more affordable.

“We’ve made some good progress, and we have lots more to do.”