BY JESSICA ROUSE
NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley announced over the weekend a future Labor government would mandate 25% of properties built on government-owned land be set aside for affordable housing, and it's a plan being welcomed by the St Vincent De Paul Society.
The society says the Hunter was well represented in a petition calling for more privately owned land to be made available for affordable housing. They had been calling for 15% of private development land be earmarked for affordable housing, which had the support of around 16,000 people.
"We actually promoted that we would like a commitment from state government for 15 per cent of housing developments to include affordable housing and for the opposition to announce that they are pursuing that promotion with 25 per cent, that's an excellent result," said Denise Lucus, the Society's Executive Officer for Maitland Newcastle.
Everyday in Newcastle the St Vincent De Paul Society helps thousands of people through a range of societal challenges including housing, support for people living with a mental illness, budget counselling and youth programs, migrant and refugee assistance and Denise Lucus says they frequently come across families on the "verge of losing rental properties because they just can't keep up with an unexpected bill arriving so we are often dealing with people on the verge of losing their tenancy".
However, on the flip side, Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald is pouring cold water on Labor's policy commitment.
He says in April the government offered land and $3 million towards affordable housing units on the former heavy rail corridor in Newcastle, yet council is refusing to rezone the land.
"And immediately we had a council playing politics with it, we had the local Labor member Tim Crakanthorp come out and rubbish the idea so look you know my issue is who is actually in charge of housing politics? Is it Luke Foley or is it the people on the ground such as Tim Crakanthorp and the council? So there seems to be no hope of that policy being delivered," said Scot MacDonald.
Scot MacDonald added what Labor say they do, and what they actually do are two completely different things.
As with all things, the St Vincent De Paul Society say it is encouraging the Opposition has come up with the 25%, but "of course we need to wait now and see what NSW government will announce in the budget".
