Shane Sylvanspring, Mullumbimby
I want to congratulate and applaud Cr Paul Spooner, Mayor Simon Richardson, and planning staff for supporting and pushing for Byron Shire to set up a Community Land Trust (CLT) for affordable housing within the Shire. In particular are the two Council owned sites earmarked for affordable housing.
As someone who has explored and supported CLTs as an ownership model in the Bruns Ecovillage project and other ecovillage projects I have been involved in, I believe new models such as CLTs are needed, not only in the Shire but Australia wide. The current affordable housing models only work to a certain extent and the CLT model provides a more community minded ownership model than current private partnership models. The CLT model is successful in both the UK and USA and is reflective of the needs of the Shire, which I hope is still willing to be innovative and community inclusive.
So, thank you Byron Shire Council for pushing innovative and different ways of thinking around affordable housing and ownership forward. Innovation and new ways of thinking are what is needed to solve the various crises we face.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
