A co-living project for women over 55 is gaining momentum in the North Coast, with a local organisation claiming it is attracting investment and has nearly the funds to deliver its first dwelling.

If approved, Gulgan Village, proposed on the highway end of The Saddle Road across 37.9 hectares, could eventually (after a development application process) house up to 1,000 people in around 550 homes, ‘depending on the housing mix’ (source: Gulgan Village Civil Engineering Report).

Six units are proposed at the eastern end of New City Road, Mullumbimby, on a site that was inundated during the 2022 floods. Submitted by Duncan Band's Kollective, Development Application (DA) 10.2026.269.1 at 73 New City Road is on public exhibition with Byron Shire Council, and sits within the Shire's flood planning area.

With 17 new ‘social housing’ dwellings being announced for Casino, what other similar projects are underway in the Northern Rivers?

Byron Council has tightened its definition of ‘affordable housing’ in a bid to make access to housing more equitable on major projects like the former Mullumbimby Hospital site and 57 Station Street.

The community frustration at Byron Shire Council was palpable on Monday night as they sought to understand why the draft development control plan (DCP) for the former Mullumbimby Hospital site failed so effectively at reflecting all the contributions they had made to the process.

The Byron Shire Council says a proposed Memorandum of Understanding with the state’s housing department will focus on more social and affordable housing.

A former Byron Shire councillor who sat in on internal workshops about Council’s affordable housing development on Station Street, Mullumbimby says the developer was quietly told to make the project as big as possible so that it would be economically viable.

Residents have come out overwhelmingly against a proposal by NSW government development corporation Landcom, and Council, to plonk oversized ‘affordable housing’ units on a busy Mullumbimby carpark near the town’s entrance.

The discovery of sewer mains underneath a large ‘affordable housing’ proposal by government-run development corporation Landcom appears to have put a kibosh on the project.