Mayor of Shellharbour City Council Chris Homer has conceded that for many living in his city, the prospect of realising the Australian dream is out of reach.
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"It's getting to the stage where it's the end of the Australian dream where people can afford a home," he said.
This sobering realisation comes as a chorus of community, government, business and not-for-profit organisations call for all levels of government to rapidly address the affordable housing crisis.
On July 26, at the launch of the Affordable Housing Solutions report, report author and planner Judith Stubbs said many councils had the tools to confront this crisis, but were unwilling to use them.
That is a position disputed by some mayors in the Illawarra, who say state planning policies have hamstrung them, and taken control of planning policy out of their hands.
Kiama Mayor Neil Reilly said in some cases, local governments were powerless to confront the crisis on their doorstep.
"The state government is moving in a direction where many more councils will lose the ability of planning," Cr Reilly said.
Cr Reilly cited his northern neighbour in Wollongong, where development applications are sent to the Wollongong Local Planning Panel or the Southern Regional Planning Panel and are not decided by councillors.
Cr Reilly also said that Kiama Council's plan for affordable housing at a site near Bombo Quarry was stymied by the NSW government due to the impact of work at the adjacent quarry.
"If [the NSW government] were to remove that caveat, which we've been trying to get them to do, we could develop that land in such a way as to accommodate affordable housing."
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said that his council was always looking for affordable housing opportunities but had to follow rules set by state governments.
"We have to follow the requirements of the planning acts in the way we process a planning proposal," he said.
However, affordable housing advocate and CEO of the Housing Trust Michele Adair said that blaming the state government for a lack of action is an "excuse" and councils should be well aware of the tools they have at their disposal.
"It is simply not the case that it is a state or a federal government problem. The Illawarra councils have been letting down their communities and local businesses by not proactively trying to address this issue," she said.
While Wollongong has not yet seen the rise of YIMBY - or Yes In My Backyard - groups as Melbourne and Sydney have, other community groups have thrown their weight behind what they call sensible policies that increase affordable housing, a shift that has been driven by the widening affordable housing crisis that has ensnared even those on modest incomes, Ms Adair said.
"As the housing crisis has started to affect working, professional families,more people are realising that things like medium density housing are an important solution. If we want to be able to continue to protect the escarpment and our waterways, then we need to think about gentle and appropriate increases to density in our shopping centres and railway stations," she said.
"I think most people are starting to really appreciate that."
Each council has its own approach to housing policy, with Kiama currently assessing feedback on its draft housing strategy and Wollongong recently adopting its housing strategy.
On Monday, Wollongong council confirmed it would allocate $5 million to Headstart Homes, to enable homebuyers to purchase a house without needing to put down a deposit, if they meet certain eligibility criteria. Cr Bradbery said the funds would be recycled to help more homebuyers and were one of a suite of measures, but Ms Adair questioned whether the money was going to those in the most need.
"We know that 80 per cent of households that are in housing stress are renters and I think it's dangerous to have government programs that are helping vulnerable, low-income households to buy property at the peak of the market, when cost of living pressures are likely to continue going up."
The Housing Trust was one of three organisations shortlisted for the grant, but was unsuccessful.
In Shellharbour, the Council's housing strategy has not been updated since 2019, something that Cr Homer said needed to be addressed, and that council should look at setting affordable housing targets in new developments, an initiative absent from current policy documents.
"The percentages of affordable housing [in new developments] need to be raised and go up north in the areas of 20 and 30 per cent."
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