A proposed mandatory target for affordable housing in Wollongong high-rises was only "a minor drop" in the ocean, Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery.
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The council was debating the draft affordable housing policy, which would require 3 per cent of floor space in new residential high-rises and shoptop housing from 2026.
That figure is proposed to rise by 1 per cent a year until 2033.
Cr Bradbery noted that it was something the council had to try with the mechanisms it had available to it.
"It's a start, it's only a minor drop in addressing the immense ocean of poverty and struggle that we've got in this country at the present time," Cr Bradbery said.
"But I can assure you it isn't local government's making. It is the responsibilities of governments that have made choices, that do not want to increase taxation, who do not want to intervene.
"We've got to work with the levers that are available to us at the present time. This is a start."
One aspect of the policy would see developers who could not provide affordable housing having to pay a levy, which concerned Cr Dom Figliomeni.
"I believe that there are many other levers that council could have actually looked at to try and encourage the development of affordable housing," Cr Figliomeni said.
"I think implementing levies is a very, very simplistic and easy way of getting to a process and it makes everyone look good. 'Look, we are hitting these people over there so we can get some money over here'.
"And I do not believe that that is the the way to go."
Cr Mithra Cox disagreed with that assessment, stating the levy won't have an effect on what people were willing to pay for an apartment. She added that property investment had been a contributing factor in the current housing crisis.
"Housing has become, instead of being primarily a place for people to live, an investment for people and a way for people to make money off the capital gains," Cr Cox said.
Cr Ann Martin acknowledged fixing the problem would come at a cost.
"I think that yes, there will always be a cost but I think the cost of doing nothing is clearly unacceptable," Cr Martin said
Cr Bradbery also disagreed with Cr Figliomeni's claim about the levy, noting governments have always taken from one group to pay another - it was called taxation.
Cr David Brown highlighted data in the staff report that contradicted claims the council was acting as a bottleneck by not approving development applications fast enough.
"Our staff are suggesting that construction commencements are running at roughly two-thirds of the rate of approvals," Cr Brown said.
"So one third of the DAs that go through our council process are not being built. We can add to that a bit of safe scepticism about the claim that council's processes are somehow slowing up the building supply. They're not not building them anywhere near the rate that we can approve them."
The councillors voted unanimously to place the draft affordable housing policy out on public exhibition for a period of 28 days.