Forum discusses the solution to Cairns housing crisis

A combination of factors has caused a “feeding frenzy” at the bottom end of the housing market, with people competing for prices they never thought they’d have to, an industry advocate says, as key players met to discuss the region’s housing crisis.

A combination of factors has caused a “feeding frenzy” at the bottom end of the housing market, with people competing for prices they never thought they’d have to, an industry advocate says.

Identifying land opportunities, funding, and building a long-term plan to fixing a deepening housing crisis were discussed at a forum in Cairns on Tuesday.

Cairns Regional Council and Queensland’s peak homelessness and housing body Qshelter met with other stakeholders to thresh out the issues and identify potential housing projects.

“Our plan is to create a plan moving forward and particularly today (Tuesday) identifying the land opportunities, identify where the money is and bring those partners together,” Qshelter manager for policy and strategic engagement Jackson Hills said.

Manager, Policy and Strategic Engagement for QShelter Jackson Hills.

“We are hoping to identify sites that we can begin to move forward with within the next six to 12 months.

“There are options that can be implemented in the modular or prefab space that could be up and running within 12 weeks so we need to look all these opportunities.”

Cairns is among the top ten worst regions in terms of unmet housing need across the nation, according to an unmet housing need report produced earlier this year by the Community Housing Industry Association and UNSW.

QShelter estimates there are about 140 people sleeping rough in Cairns each night and around 4500 who do not have a safe and secure place to call home.

“They might be in cars, in tents, hotels or living in crowded homes,” Mr Hills said.

He said that all agencies must work together to build a long-term housing plan.

“We need to make sure this is not an issue ten to 20 years down the line and effect our future generations,” he said.

“We know Cairns population is going to grow towards 250,000, we cannot afford to see the need increase further.”

Unity Cairns Division 4 councilor and mayoral candidate Terry James. Picture: Brendan Radke

He said two decades of under-investment in social housing combined with the effects of the pandemic as well as a difficult construction environment has caused the crisis we are seeing today.

“It has caused a feeding frenzy at the bottom of the market. People are fighting for prices that they never thought they would have to.”

Cairns Regional Council Deputy Mayor Terry James’ said the council was working as fast as it could.

“This is the reason we have all these people together in the room so we can facilitate these discussions and find some quicker solutions while our longer term solutions are developed,” he said.

Mr James said the issue was driven by a lack of housing stock and council would do as much as it could to facilitate developments efficiently and effectively.

Originally published as Forum discusses the solution to Cairns housing crisis