2022-11-04 Special Meeting Agenda

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA                                                           4 NOVEMBER 2022


8.    Need for the Strategy and Council’s Role
A clear majority of respondents were supportive of affordable and social housing in Noosa Shire.
Survey participants were specifically asked “How important is it to you that social and affordable
housing be made a priority by Noosa Council?”, to which 49.16% responded Extremely Important
and a further 26.34% responded Important. 16.85% of respondents said it was of low importance or
not important at all.
Staff believe this is validation for proceeding with Housing Strategy and being part of the solution
while still obviously advocating to other levels of government to act on their responsibilities. Each
level of government should see it as their responsibility to work collaboratively within their power to
ensure people have access to safe housing.
9.    Clarity of types of housing and likely residents
Amongst submissions there seemed to be some confusion about different forms of housing and who
may or may not occupy them. For this reason, it is considered important that an ongoing
communications and awareness plan form part of the Strategy and that assistance from the Housing
Stakeholder Reference Group be sought in providing examples and case studies.
There was a sentiment of fear towards social housing and this may have been connected to past
experiences or observations. While few exist in Noosa Shire, new social housing developments offer
very high levels of amenity.
The survey results indicated the greatest levels of support were for housing for key workers, followed
by vulnerable groups and people in crisis, then families and low income earners. The cost of housing,
the lack of available housing and particularly affordable housing and the general cost of living were
all considered significant obstacles.
Few local workers qualify for social housing and the waitlist is long. Many would not consider
themselves to be “low income earners” and comments were made by professionals who admitted to
having a good income but when compared to local rents it was still not enough to secure housing.
Some submissions included detail of workplaces and the challenging living/commuting
arrangements of current staff.
Some submitters suggested it was the responsibility of the business or employer to provide staff
housing or assist staff in securing housing. Council officers have been asked by a number of sizable
local businesses and organisations where and how they could develop staff housing. Key worker
housing is also not limited to a particular type or scale. Some workers may be single and be
comfortable in a small inner centre unit or shared arrangement while others have families and require
more space. Multiple income households are likely to require access to more than one place of work.
The Housing Strategy seeks to clarify terminology around housing types, support the establishment
of an adopt-a-worker campaign and partner with Housing Stakeholder Reference Group in
embarking on an ongoing informative communication and awareness strategy including real life
tenant stories.
10.   Population Growth and Capacity
There was notable concern that any increase in residential densities or expansion of residential
development into new areas will lead to a level of population that has not been planned for and is
therefore beyond the planned carrying capacity for the Shire. Given how carefully Noosa Shire has
controlled population growth over the last 25 years this is a reasonable concern. The capacity to
provide infrastructure, the capacity of the road network and the general number of people were all
sited as concerns.
In terms of resident people, Noosa Shire has an average household size of 2.4 persons. This is even
lower in coastal parts of the Shire. The 2021 census indicated that out of 21,847 households, two
thirds were 1 or 2 person households. The population capacity work of the mid 1990’s was not based
on assumptions of such low occupancy rates.



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