Trying to fix the housing crisis in the Byron Shire by building more houses is like trying to put out a fire with kerosene. More houses does not mean more affordability. However, it will help ruin the beauty of the landscape and the natural habitats that need more nature and less buildings.
More houses means the rich will simply buy them up, as they currently do. Realtors get daily phone calls asking: ‘I’ve got six mill, what can I get for that?’
If we overdevelop the area, as seems to be on the government agenda, we are just creating more fodder for rich parasites to gobble up. Some will rent these homes back to us for over $1,000 a week (which no mere local can afford), and some will find a way to continue to holiday let them because that’s what rich people do – they find loopholes to get richer. Some will have them empty and be benefiting from negative gearing.
The only way to genuinely relax this critical housing situation is to set some boundaries around home ownership. There should be limits as to how many homes one person can own. There should be no benefits such as negative gearing, because this only serves the investor.
You have people buying up homes and businesses in small coastal towns, which then sit empty so as to provide their owners with financial benefits. This ruins towns, and adds huge pressure to the housing crisis. It also makes it terrible for a holiday as there are no local workers to serve the area.
Shelter is a basic human need. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs places shelter in the basic and most important level of needs for survival, along with food, water, breathing and sleep.
Somehow our government has decided that building more homes in this popular rural area is going to help people find more accessible shelter.
However, we have seen even the dodgiest of dwellings here are quite unaffordable for a person on a basic worker’s income. Already there are not enough locals to work in the jobs required to service the area. Been to Woolies or a cafe lately? Always understaffed, or closed.
Radical changes need to happen in governments, and we the people need to push back on the pointless and damaging agenda that wants to overdevelop this area.
It is not going to serve the local community. Come on Council! Push back at the government and tell them that the people will not tolerate it any longer. Don’t just save Wallum, save all of Mullum and surrounds.
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. 
