Council will soon be seeking feedback on a new draft Affordable Housing Policy and procedure that aims to help increase the amount of affordable housing in the city.
In 2023, Council adopted the Wollongong Housing Strategy 2023. This Strategy recognised the need to increase access and availability of affordable housing in the Wollongong Local Government Area (LGA) and that Council was one stakeholder who had a role to play in this process.
The Strategy outlined the steps Council would need to take to support access to and the availability of affordable housing. One of the actions was to prepare a draft Affordable Housing Policy and procedure.
Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said that the draft policy and accompanying procedure sought to make it easier for new affordable housing projects to get off the ground.
"Some of the actions within the Wollongong Housing Strategy include waiving development application fees for affordable housing developments and in the longer term, introducing an Affordable Housing Development Contributions Scheme. The Affordable Housing Policy and procedure will allow Council to waive Development Application fees for emergency housing, accessible housing and affordable rental housing developments carries out by registered providers," Cr Bradbery said.
Wollongong is a growing city and by 2041, the NSW Government expects to see the City of Wollongong grow by an additional 55,375 people who will need 28,000 new homes.
At the same time, the cost-of-living crisis and rental and housing unaffordability, means that there are many people in the Wollongong community who are in desperate need of affordable housing.
"While State and Federal governments are primarily responsible for the provision of social and affordable housing, local governments also have an important role to play. The draft Policy sets targets for the delivery of affordable rental housing as a component of land rezoning proposals and larger residential developments. An adopted Policy will also allow Council to do the work on introducing an Affordable Housing Contributions Scheme," he said.
"A lot of work is ahead us as we work together to tackle the complex issue of housing. We know that this sort of progress can feel slow.
"The truth is that systemic change takes time and requires collaboration across all levels of government as well as with housing providers. While it's not Council's role to build affordable housing, we are doing what we can to make it easier for developers and not-for-profits to build affordable housing."
Council will share an update when the engagement is open for feedback on the City of Wollongong Facebook page and on the Our Wollongong website.
