‘The time for discussion has come and gone, now it’s time for action’

More than 130 community stakeholders gathered at Toowoomba Turf Club this week to dicuss the region’s growing housing crisis and come up with solutions.

CRUNCH TIME: The Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce Addressing the Housing Crisis breakfast (from left) board member Jo Sheppard, Tiff Spary from Base Services, Mike Stewart from LJ Hooker, Geoff Kath from Advance Toowoomba, Jim O'Dea from Proterra Group and Kathryn McKeefry from St Vincent's Private Hospital. Pictures: Kate McCormack

The time for discussion over Toowoomba’s housing crisis has come and gone and now Jo Sheppard and the Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce are seeking action.

The board member facilitated a community breakfast at the Toowoomba Turf Club on Thursday morning with more than 130 community members and stakeholders including panellists Tiff Spary from Base Services, Jim O’Dea from Proterra Group, Kathryn McKeefry from St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Mike Stewart from LJ Hooker, and Geoff Kath from Advance Toowoomba.

Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce board member, Jo Sheppard.

“This breakfast was so valuable because it gave the community the opportunity to come together to discuss what is a really critical issue for our city,” she said.

“Having the different experts on the panel share their thoughts and experiences and knowledge ensured attendees left with a much better understanding of how this crisis is affecting every part of the community and is having a flow on affect through all of our industries.”

Recent data revealed at the breakfast the rental availability rate in Toowoomba has fallen to 0.5 per cent, with Mr Stewart from LJ Hooker mentioning rental properties were only on the market for an average of three days.

Jo Noonan from Tony’s Community Kitchen said she thought the Chamber’s breakfast was an excellent way to bring the community together collectively to discuss the housing crisis and come up with some viable solutions but expressed concern not enough focus was actually being directed towards Toowoomba’s homeless population.

The Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce Addressing the Housing Crisis breakfast (from left) board member Jo Sheppard, Tiff Spary from Base Services, Mike Stewart from LJ Hooker, Geoff Kath from Advance Toowoomba, Jim O'Dea from Proterra Group and Kathryn McKeefry from St Vincent's Private Hospital.

“I know the community needs affordable housing for people who are moving here for work but at Tony’s Kitchen we’re focused on the homeless situation our clients are facing and one month, two months, six months, 12 months – it’s not good enough,” she said.

“We need to do something about their situation now. We have entire buildings sitting empty in town right now and I do not understand why we cannot use those to get these people off the street.”

Ms Sheppard said at the end of the day, Chamber’s role is to represent the business community.

“We will play a key role with our CEO Todd Rohl leading the charge in terms of co-ordinating some of the solutions that came up in the discussions this morning into actions and there were quite a few good ideas suggested,” she said.

The Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce Addressing the Housing Crisis breakfast was facilitated by Jo Sheppard (left) with five community panellists including Tiff Spary from Base Services and Mike Stewart from LJ Hooker discussing solutions to the region's growing housing shortage problem.

“One of the big messages from today’s event was that council play a clear role in helping to solve this problem in both the short and long term.”

Ms Sheppard said one of the suggestions floated at the breakfast involved Chamber’s food and agri network talking to Darling Downs farmers across the region around potential houses that may be on farms that could help provide short term assistance.

“There’s a level of frustration which came through from the panellists and participants around the fact that this crisis we are now in has actually been coming for a long time and we’ve not responded in the best way we probably could have,” she said.

More than 130 community stakeholders attended the Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce Addressing the Housing Crisis breakfast at the Toowoomba Turf Club this week.

Ms Sheppard said there was plenty of opportunity for Toowoomba to turn the problem into a successful solution, but action needed to be taken now.

“There’s definitely a sense in the community that the structural decentralisation (of large Australian cities) that we’ve been hoping for, for decades, is here and it provides an enormous opportunity if as a community we are able to be nimble and be able to respond,” she said.

“But it’s going to present some enormous challenges if we aren’t able to so this is why it’s time to act.”