The Housing Trust is taking aim at Illawarra councillors ahead of December's council elections, claiming they have not done enough to ease the housing affordability crisis while new candidates should pledge to do more.
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The not-for-profit aims to prevent homelessness by working with various bodies and organisations but claims housing affordability in the region is at "dire levels" and councillors have been "passing the buck .. and saying there's nothing we can do".
"There are certainly a range of things they can do, and across the four [South Coast] councils, Shoalhaven Council is already head and shoulders above the other three," said CEO Michele Adair on Friday.
"Most young people - unless they already own a home or unless their parents own homes - will not be able to buy in the future, so we need our councils to firstly start to plan for affordable rental housing and then to use all of the planning and other instruments available to them to make it a reality."
She said high property prices in the Illawarra had also sent rents skyrocketing to unattainable levels that even professionals they call "local heroes" (nurses, teachers, police and emergency services, retail, aged care, child care workers and retirees) were struggling to afford.
"Even before the pandemic there were over 10,000 households in our region in housing stress and therefore at risk of homelessness," Ms Adair said. "It's certainly one of the very worst in the state, and at the moment there's ... virtually no rental vacancies anyway, and the rents that are being charged at the moment are completely out of reach for professionally qualified people."
From now until residents line up at the polls, the Housing Trust will be "ranking" councils on what they have done to address the issue and offer all candidates briefings on the crisis and what they can do to fix it.
"We want every candidate to commit to helping deliver on Housing Trust's target of one in five new residential homes in the Illawarra being dedicated to affordable rental," Ms Adair said.
"[Our Homes4LocalHeroes campaign] is the start of a 20-year regional strategy which will address a desperate need and provide a decent home for everyone."
Labor candidate for Lord Mayor, and current councillor Tanya Brown, was the first to respond publicly, putting her own call out for all levels of government to work together on the issue.
"Wollongong is lagging behind in responding to the growing affordable housing crisis, we need to act now to address the 7,000 shortfall in homes for low income workers," Cr Brown said.
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