Like many in Mullum, I strongly support initiatives to help our homeless and vulnerable. However, Byron Shire Council’s plan to redevelop our central public car park into a three-storey ‘affordable’ housing block, for those who can afford to pay 75 per cent of market rent, raises serious concerns.
Council has a ‘responsibility to ensure the most vulnerable have access to safe, secure, genuinely affordable housing’, (Cr Hauge, Echo 6/8/25). But I don’t see how this development will fulfil that – their own DA documents and expert analysis presented at Monday’s public meeting suggest otherwise. This plan fails to deliver on its promises.
Instead, it risks parking chaos, a disrupted CBD for up to two years, business losses, increased flood risk from excessive fill, and an out-of-character monolith overshadowing our heritage-listed town. Even the homeless will permanently lose their only 24/7 toilet facility under this out-of-touch plan.
Who benefits here? Not the vulnerable, nor local businesses, nor residents facing accessibility issues. This deeply flawed DA prioritises optics over outcomes. Our Council, tasked with representing our community, must do better. I urge them to rethink this proposal and prioritise truly affordable, well-planned solutions in more suitable locations in town, that respect Mullumbimby’s character and needs.
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. 
