A roundtable on housing affordability is convening today in Newcastle, with Labor representatives from all levels of government in attendance.
Among those present were Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness Senator the Honorary Doug Cameron, Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon, State Member for Charlestown Jodie Harrison and Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes.
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| Federal Member for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon. [Image: ABC] |
"All of these people have got tremendous experience and ideas around addressing the housing affordability crisis in Newcastle and the roundtable today provides a platform for those ideas to be discussed," she said.
She says a unified front between each tier of government is needed to properly address the region's situation and so far, not much has been done.
"There's just been a gross lack of national leadership on this front," she said. "There are some things that the Federal government can do to provide assistance in terms of both housing supply and affordability but there are equally important things that state and local governments
can do and the idea of today's roundtable is to bring those three levels of government together so that we can look at some genuine solutions to what is a looming crisis for our community."
With prices going up and annual wages going down, Sharon Claydon says the housing situation in Newcastle is dire.
"We have house prices sky rocketing at 8 percent per annum at the same time when we have wages stagnating. Waiting times for social housing in Newcastle have blown out up to ten years for a two bedroom unit. The roundtable today provides a platform to really thrash out the best solution for affordable and appropriate housing."
