Ask the new Newcastle Council, which will be elected on 14th September, to employ an Affordable Housing Officer.
With rents increasing 7 times faster than wages, and millions locked out of the housing market, Newcastle is in the middle of a massive housing crisis.
The crisis is so dire it needs all levels of Government to focus their efforts on overcoming the problem. We love the diversity of Newcastle but young people and workers on low wages can’t afford to live here anymore.
An Affordable Housing Officer could work with State and Federal agencies to:
- Investigate ways of providing more rental properties in Newcastle
- Progress the Newcastle Affordable Housing Contributions Scheme Planning Proposal
- Explore other ways of unlocking State and Federal grants to provide more housing in Newcastle
- Ensure that all new developments by big property developers include at least 30% ongoing affordable housing in all new large private residential developments and 50% for developments on publicly owned land
- Investigate collecting and investing the money collected from developer levies in new, permanent, social housing projects
- Support not-for-profit community housing initiatives, including shared equity and cooperative housing models
- Investigate applying a 5% empty homes levy with some exemptions, for homes left empty for over six months with the funds going towards creating more public, social and affordable homes.
- Plan to fund ongoing investment in specialist homelessness services.
