Council releases options to create a better mix of housing for the city

Picture: Expect Best on Pexels.com

TO increase the number of houses and apartments that are smaller and more affordable Wollongong City Council is calling for comments on the draft Housing and Affordable Housing Options Paper.

This paper provides options and ideas to help Council, developers, State government agencies and homeowners to create a better mix of housing that will suit the needs of a broad range of families. The paper is also about providing housing that is more affordable for people within our community living on very low, low and medium incomes.

Currently Wollongong (including the northern suburbs) has about 216,071 people who live in more than 80,000 dwellings. The State Government projects that the city population will grow by about 45,700 people by 2036, and we will need a further 23,800 dwellings. Also, the number of people aged 70 and over will increase to 31,845 by 2026.

Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the city is changing.

“We have more seniors who tend to live alone or with only a partner and who are looking for smaller low maintenance housing,” he said.

“To suitably house people in our city we need a better mix of housing designs and pricing that is far more affordable than at present.

“Housing in the city is now among the most expensive in the country, so we need to manage how we can change that and help people as they choose to move into housing that they can afford and provides them with a quality lifestyle.

“To do this we need to change the way our planning controls work to create more affordable and suitable housing options for all residents.”

Affordable housing considers the needs of various sectors in the community such as the homeless, social housing, students, seniors, and people with disability

The draft paper recommends that Council:

• Increase the number of studio and one-bedroom dwellings in the city
• Review Council planning controls in medium density areas to increase the feasibility of development and to provide smaller dwelling types
• Identify precincts to increase medium density housing
• Continue to develop and implement an Affordable Housing Contributions Scheme
• Adopt and implement an affordable rental housing target for the city
• Work with community housing providers and the NSW Land and Housing Corporation to renew and improve and increase social and affordable housing supply

To have a say into the housing plan visit Wollongong City Council’s Join the Conversation website to review the options paper and to provide a response.

Feedback will close at Close of Business on Friday July 10.

Community members and industry representatives are encouraged to review the Draft Housing and Affordable Housing Options paper.

Donation

YOU can also make a small donation towards the running of The Bulli & Clifton Times and/or the Looking Back websites through Paypal. If you would like to support my work, you can leave a small tip here of $2, or several small tips, just increase the amount as you like. Your generous patronage of my work and research, however small it appears to you, will greatly help me with my continuing costs.

A$2.00