Housing people is one of the most important issues in the Northern Rivers, particularly in the Lismore area, and at Tuesday’s Council meeting the subject of housing grants was up for debate.
Lismore City Council has approximately $1.2 million that must be spent on affordable housing initiatives through a historic Building Better Regional Cities (BBRC) grant.
$15,000 grants
A report prepared by Council’s Strategic Planning Coordinator presented an option for Council to try to stimulate the construction of additional affordable housing by distributing $15,000 grants to landowners in eligible categories. This would assist with meeting the targets set in Council’s adopted Affordable and Diverse Housing Strategy and will expend the BBRC funds in accordance with the requirements of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Social Services.
Council debated whether to endorse the expenditure of the uncommitted Building Better Regional Cities affordable housing reserve fund, outlined in the report, for landholders to use secondary dwellings, dual occupancy dwellings, a tiny home or a manufactured home, or for first home buyers who purchases vacant land to build any new home.
Grants would also be given to those in a flood affected house who want to relocate or a homeowner who has accepted a buyback offer from the NRRC.
The grants would also be viable for registered Community Housing Providers or Indigenous Community Housing Organisations who build new housing and any developer of new multi-dwelling housing, residential flat building or co-living housing who agrees to enter into a Voluntary Planning Agreement (VPA) with Council to have the housing managed by a CHP for a minimum of 15 years as affordable rental housing.
The eligibility criteria
A eligibility criteria was proposed that would require applicants to provide evidence that they are within the ‘low’ to ‘moderate’ income definition and to agree to a condition that the housing be used for rental accommodation for a minimum of five years, with rent capped at a maximum of 30 per cent of the tenant’s gross household income.
In order, to be eligible for LCC’s first home owners grant the applicants must supply evidence that they are eligible and have been accepted for either the NSW First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme or NSW First Home Owner’s Grant.
For grants for relocation or buybacks an applicant must show they are part of one of those schemes and any other grants would also show use for affordable rental housing.
Policing grants funds
Councillor Adam Guise had a question for staff about how would council ensure that the grants get used for their intended purpose. ‘How is that going to be policed and make sure that it is actually for affordable housing?’
Council’s Director of Partnerships, Planning and Engagement, Eber Butron said there were various criteria that each applicant would have to comply with to make sure that it does go towards affordable housing and future diverse housing.
Cr Adam Guise pushed the mater further to ask about an applicant’s financial status. ‘If we are giving out 80 grants of $15,000 each, and they’ve got to provide evidence that they’re low to moderate income, is that what they demonstrate when they’re going through the grant [process]?
‘What’s to stop anyone from arranging their finances so they appear to be low to moderate income definition to meet, if there’s other alternative companies or trusts involved, is council going to be seeking the full financial details of applicants in order to ensure that it’s going to someone that meets the sort of means tests, so that we’re actually addressing the problem and just not enriching a certain class of people?
Seeking evidence to meet criteria
Mr Butron said his understanding was that every part of the application process would be seeking the sort of evidence required to meet that criteria. Before Council entered into agreement and release any grants.
Cr Adam Guise has another question. ‘If we’re just requiring that simple requirement upfront for individuals to get $15,000, isn’t it a bit of a double standard for voluntary planning agreements for developers or community housing providers to sign 15 year agreements to say that they’re providing affordable housing?
‘It just seems like for some parties, there’s more onus on them to accord with our requirements, which are quite fairly about affordable housing, but for other classes of applicants, all they need to do is show a one off evidence and then they’re given this $15,000 grant?’
Cr Guise said he would start the debate by speaking against this report and handing it out in individual grants of about $15,000. ‘I can appreciate that staff and councillors are keen to go to get this money out into the community and ostensibly be delivering affordable housing, but personally, I don’t think this is going to achieve this and I think it’s a bad way of going about addressing the housing crisis and it is a hot topic at the moment.
Flitter it away
‘Before we fragment this out and flitter it away in small fragments, which will have negligible impact, other than go into the pockets of people who I think are already in a financially sound situation – this will go into the pockets of the landed class – of which I am one. I am a lucky person. I own a home in Australia, and many people do not.
‘Too many people are still beholden to the rental market and not owning their own home and they don’t have access to government, social, public housing. The government’s on both sides of the spectrum have completely neglected their duty to invest in public housing for decades, and now we’re paying the price.
‘So for us to have that chance and then suddenly just give it away in small fragments, when we could use it to broker a deal with a housing provider to properly build affordable housing is a wasted opportunity and a failure of our role here.
‘Let’s not just send this money away in small grants for people to build second or third dwellings and get $2,000 or $3,000 a week in rent from the flood recovery people who are rebuilding our town. Let’s actually invest in the people in your community. Those are the renters who have been struggling for years and decades. That’s the flood impacted residents that have been driven by our community. And let’s just not make the rich, richer.’
$1.2 million to 80 families is massive
Cr Jeri Hall says she was speaking in support of the staff report ‘Obviously, $1.2 million to 80 families in Lismore is massive. We live in an ageing community and these tiny homes could not only help children growing up going to uni moving out, cost of living – our parents workers, everything.
‘I encourage everyone to vote for this because it’s fantastic and I love that Lismore City council has the initiative to help our communities through little grants like this.’
The mayor took a vote on accepting the report. All those in favour were Councillors Byrd, Colby, Hall, Gordon, Cook, Jensen, Bing, Rob, Eking and Kraig, and against was Cr Guise.
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