A new governance model to deliver affordable housing in the Shire was launched last Tuesday by Cr Paul Spooner.
He addressed the first Byron Community Land Limited AGM at the Community Centre and said a subsidy of roughly 33 per cent is needed to make housing affordable in the Byron Shire.
‘No current government is willing to commit to that level of ongoing subsidy,’ he said.
‘We need to create a different market – one that doesn’t monopolise property, but rather frees it up for community members to build or rent houses to live in.’ The aim of the Community Land Trust, he says, is to acquire land and hold it in trusteeship as a common heritage, not as an individual possession.
‘Land is put to use in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, and leased long term to individuals for housing, production of food and the development of enterprises or activities that support community life.
‘The lease agreement (up to 99 years) becomes the specific, flexible, legal means by which the interests of the community and the individual leaseholder are explicitly described and protected in accordance with the policies of the trust.’
Three types of members are proposed, says Cr Spooner: general, resident and foundation members.
As for governance, the board would comprise at least nine directors, including three public directors.
For more info visit www.bcll.org.au.
