Des Houghton: Why hasn’t Labor taken up church coalition’s offer to house 10k Queenslanders?

A coalition of churches and not-for-profit groups have generously offered to give land to provide affordable housing for 10,000 people. So why hasn’t the Palaszczuk-Miles government taken them up, asks Des Houghton?

Queensland churches and not-for-profit groups have generously offered to give land to provide affordable housing for 10,000 people. So why has the Palaszczuk-Miles government been slow to embrace the scheme?

The Salvation Army and the Catholic and Anglican churches and groups like Queensland War Widows remain puzzled and disappointed as to why their offer to help ease the housing crisis remains in limbo.

A coalition of church groups and community housing providers came forward to offer land at a housing summit in October 2022 called by the then Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Oddly, the plan was put on the back burner.

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon has some explaining to do.

I’ve seen letters where a faith-based group told her they could potentially deliver 500 homes within one or two years on 15 sites in Brisbane alone.

The Catholic Archdiocese is the biggest landowner in Brisbane.

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon. Picture: Glenn Campbell/NCA NewsWire

A similar scheme to build affordable housing on church land has been successful in California and is now being adopted by other states.

A Brisbane working group with the clumsy name YIFBY (Yes, In Faith’s Backyard) has been advocating changes to the law to allow their spare freehold land to be developed more speedily. YIFBY members include town planners, housing advocates and representatives of churches.

It proposes a set of duplexes or townhouses of no more than two storeys and with no more than 10 dwellings in each project.

The homes would be compatible with nearby buildings. One document says each affordable housing block would comply with built form provisions prescribed under the applicable planning scheme.

Existing rules on setbacks, open space and parking would apply.

The churches are seeking a long-term lease agreement in partnership with community housing providers or the state Department of Housing.

The Opposition struck a blow this week when it released its “Unlocking Homes for Queensland’s Future” policy to open up more land should it win the October state election.

“The LNP will deliver the homes for Queensland’s future by unlocking the land for housing, fast-tracking approvals and delivering the infrastructure to kickstart new housing developments,” Opposition leader David Crisafulli said.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

The faith-based collective is likely to win its case for streamlined laws, whichever party wines in October.

The Labor government this week tweaked laws to allow the planning and development agency, Economic Development Queensland, to deliver more homes faster, although full details were not released.

Minister for State Development Grace Grace said the changes would give the EDQ powers to fast-tracked social and affordable housing.

Housing lot approvals have declined by almost 30 per cent in a decade under Labor. Housing supply is lagging behind the soaring population.

It will then be up to a Crisafulli government to pick up the ball where Labor failed. Is shadow housing minister Tim Mander up for the challenge?

Crisafulli did not refer directly to the offer from the churches and non-profits, although Mander told me he would back it lock, stock and barrel.

Labor has been in power for most of the past 30 years and in that time hardly made a dent in public housing waiting lists. Too little too late, it is now scrambling to catch up.

Since 2015, it has provided an average of only 230 homes each year.

Queensland Council of Social Services CEO Aimee McVeigh. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

Queensland Council of Social Service chief executive Aimee McVeigh recently told The Courier-Mail there were 300,000 Queenslanders with unmet housing needs.

Overseas and interstate migration to Queensland has exacerbated the housing crisis. Soaring rents have forced many low-income Queenslanders to live in tent cities.

Whoever wins in October will have an enormous challenge to work with local councils to speed up the release of the land. Churches to the rescue.

Behind the scenes the YIFBY working group has been lobbying the government to allow housing developments on their vacant lots.

The group is run with housing peak body Q Shelter in collaboration with the Brisbane Catholic Archdiocese and the heads of several churches.

“Our initial review of over 60 sites owned by the Brisbane Catholic Archdiocese and the Salvation Army has identified approximately 40 sites that could accommodate over 2000 new dwellings, with numerous sites ready to go immediately,” said Natalie Rayment, co-founder of the collective.

“Housing is still not a human right in Australia. If we are to shift towards addressing homelessness and housing supply for all we need to strengthen the housing sector, including unlocking more infill housing in locations where infrastructure investments have already been made.

“The simplicity of YIFBY is that it will unlock housing on under-utilised land in the existing urban footprint where the community already expects urban development.”

YIFBY co-founder Natalie Rayment. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The obvious advantage for any provider is that they do not have to pay for the land.

Oddly, the Catholic Church declined several requests to provide a spokesman to elaborate on its plan.

Time for the Archbishop to front up.

He will have a good story to tell, and it is no secret the Catholic Church needs all the brownie points it can get.

Despite several requests the church also declined to reveal some of the sites that would be suitable for affordable housing projects.

The Catholic Archdiocese eventually provided a statement quoting an unnamed spokesperson.

“Our mission is to provide for the vulnerable and less fortunate – we already do that through our significant education and social services operations embedded in communities throughout our parishes across Queensland,” it said.

“For us, property is not the main goal. Our property is a mechanism to assist us to deliver our mission. It needs to be activated to do that. Current planning regimes make it difficult, and expensive.

“This proposal is a practical way to secure and deliver a future in improving people’s wellbeing now and into the long term.”

In its pitch to Scanlon more than a year ago the collective said: “This land is predominantly located in areas of high amenity and accessibility, making them logical locations for social and affordable housing.

“There is both the capacity and intent to build affordable and social housing at scale, currently constrained by the existing site-by-site planning approval processes and system.’’

YIFBY says it has two special sites in mind. They are on Catholic Archdiocese property at 108-116 Darra Station Rd, Darra and a Salvation Army property at 157-173 Wardoo St, Southport.

Originally published as Des Houghton: Why hasn’t Labor taken up church coalition’s offer to house 10k Queenslanders?