Byron Shire has the highest number of rough sleepers of any local government area in the state, and urgently needs state government support for an assertive homelessness outreach program, Mayor Michael Lyon says.
As Council continues its crackdown on the Shire’s van campers, Cr Lyon successfully moved a motion calling on NSW Housing Minister, Rose Jackson, to fund the outreach program that supports those who were genuinely homeless, rather than ‘those who choose to freeload in our streets’.
‘In the last two years, our rough sleeping count has gone up 50 per cent – from 200 to 300 people,’ Cr Lyon told last week’s Council Planning Meeting.
‘This hasn’t been officially released yet, but we’re aware of the figures.
Number one in NSW
‘We’re now the number one local government area in the state, in terms of raw numbers of people sleeping rough.
‘It’s just not good enough. It’s something that, as a Council, we can no longer say that we can deal with. We need to lobby really strongly for help. We need to demand an appropriate response to this problem.’
Councillors unanimously passed Cr Lyon’s motion, and will now write to Ms Jackson and request an assertive outreach program which matches the resource allocation provided to the Tweed Shire.
‘We need a matching allocation in our Shire, so we can properly address this issue, so that we can get the qualified people to go out into the community, to the people who are sleeping rough, and find out what they are facing and what they need,’ Cr Lyon said.
Council will also demand an expansion of supported emergency, crisis, temporary and transitional accommodation in the Shire.
He said that Council had begun talking to Reflections Holiday Parks, the state-owned corporation which runs many of the Shire’s caravan parks, about making their services available to rough sleepers.
Cr Lyon also raised the possibility of other measures that might be put in place to address the chronic shortage of housing in the Shire which was contributing to the homelessness problem.
This included increasing building height limits and changing local planning policies to permit more medium-density residential development in certain areas.
‘I’ve been heartened by some of the conversations that I’ve been having with people locally and I think the view has started to change,’ Cr Lyon said.
‘I think people are starting to recognise that we need to build a lot more housing. Something does have to give.’
He also raised the prospect of opening up farmland for development.
‘Our regionally significant farmland, which covers two-thirds of our Shire, has been a constraint that’s prevented housing,’ Cr Lyon said. ‘Perhaps the DPI (Department of Primary Industries) is going to have to give a bit there.’
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