More
Affordable Housing in the Inner City
At Council on Monday night I tabled a Lord Mayoral Minute
highlighting recent projects which will significantly increase much needed
supply of affordable housing in the inner city.
Housing affordability is a key issue in Sydney. We need people on
different income levels to be able to afford to live here.
This is especially true of our essential workers – people who keep
the city functioning such as nurses, cleaners, police, teachers, baristas,
hotel workers, firefighters and retail assistants, they all should be able to
live close to where they work.
The City has an ambitious target under Sustainable Sydney 2030
for 7.5 per cent of all housing in the City to be social housing and 7.5 per
cent to be affordable housing. To meet our target almost 8,000 affordable
housing and 650 social housing dwellings need to be built in the City by
2030.
Funding for 1,035 affordable rental dwellings in the City of Sydney
local government area has been awarded by the Federal Government under the
National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). This includes 828 dwellings at
Frasers Broadway, dwellings in the Pemulway Project in Redfern by the
Aboriginal Housing Company and properties in Darlinghurst, Glebe and
Zetland.
High demand for rental properties and continuing rental rises are
making it increasingly difficult to attract and retain essential workers in
inner city areas.
The City of Sydney has adopted an Affordable Rental Housing
Strategy to help provide 3,000 new affordable housing dwellings and our
actions to date have contributed to over 900 new affordable dwellings that have
been, or will be, built in the City.
Another important aspect is the role student accommodation and
boarding houses play in alleviating demands on affordable housing stock.
Purpose built student accommodation and boarding houses provide
another low cost housing option and the City continues to work with student
housing providers to encourage well designed student accommodation.
Since 2009 we have approved around 677 student rooms. In addition,
720 student rooms have been developed by the University of Technology Sydney on
their Harris Street site under the State Government’s major projects
legislation.
The State Government is also working to address housing
affordability and recently established an Affordable Housing Taskforce to
investigate planning mechanisms and tools, local area strategies and specialist
housing.
A review of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Affordable
Rental Housing) by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure is
currently underway.
Information
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My Lord Mayor’s Minute: www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Council/MeetingsAndCommittees/2011/Council/071111.aspx
Source: Clover’s eNews – Friday 11 November – No 572