Plans to build Byron Shire’s first permanent group home for women and children in housing stress are moving ahead, with the development application for the project coming before Council this week.
It’s the first initiative of the Byron Shire Community Land Trust, a not-for-profit organisation aiming to build modest rental accommodation across the Shire.
The group home will provide medium-term, transitional housing for at least two small single-parent families and two older women.
Located at 66 The Saddle Road, Brunswick Heads, the proposed development has a total floor area of 176.8m² and contains a kitchen, lounge room, living area, five adult and two children’s bedrooms, with bathrooms for each bedroom and a shared laundry.
Supporting this use is a separate building with storeroom, toilet and 49m2 office.
The structures are single storey in height and 4.1m tall.
The development includes parking for six vehicles, drinking water storage, on-site wastewater treatment facilities and waste storage and composting facilities.
Site landscaping includes an Asset Protection Zone (APZ) and the restoration of a gully to the east of the proposed buildings, and rainforest revegetation to the north along a north-flowing gully.
An ecological assessment undertaken by the applicant states that the majority of the area within the project footprint is ‘degraded grazing land comprising exotic grasses and forbs’.
The land for the project has been donated by local developer Brandon Saul, who has played a central role in setting up the land trust.
The group home itself will be built using funds donated by four wealthy local philanthropists with the assistance of the Northern Rivers Community Foundation (NRCF) and Mr Saul’s company, Creative Capital.
It follows in the footsteps of land trusts set up in the US and northern Europe, and attempts to address the Shire’s housing and homelessness crisis by providing low-cost rental accommodation to those who need it.
Managed by Trust
It is a not-for-profit entity run by a board, that purchases land and builds housing that is then managed by a community housing provider.
Those managing the trust have publicly stated that all land it purchases for housing will be used for this purpose in perpetuity.
They have also pledged that rents will be genuinely affordable, rather than adhering to the flawed conceptions of affordability contained within state government housing policies.
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