A proposed mandatory affordable housing target of 15 per cent will be discussed in State Parliament on Thursday.

Late last year, St Vincent de Paul Society launched a petition asking the NSW Government to change the state’s planning laws so that at least 15 per cent of new residential developments are set aside for affordable housing.

“We also believe that the NSW Government should lead by example and deliver 30 per cent affordable housing on redevelopments on the land it owns,” Jack de Groot, CEO St Vincent de Paul Society NSW said. 

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Mr de Groot said they needed 10,000 handwritten signatures in order for the petition to be discussed in parliament, and ultimately received more than 16,300 signatures of support.

Peter Quarmby, executive officer for St Vincent de Paul Society’s Wollongong Central Council said housing affordability was increasingly becoming a “systemic problem”. 

He said we were seeing a whole generation of people “being locked out of the market”, unless they were receiving significant support from their families. 

“What’s compounding that is the escalating rental costs, which means more of their income is going to rent and therefore the time it takes to save for a deposit is increased,” Mr Quarmby said. 

“The spiralling costs of power (are also having an effect). 

‘So what we end up with is this perfect storm that means people are not able to enter into that market, and therefore not freeing up other parts of the housing market for those people who may well be happy to not necessarily own, but be able to get into affordable rental.”