The church’s Social Justice Forum has helped organise a round of meetings between Sydney Alliance members and key government MPs in Sydney – in a bid to push the issue of affordable housing up the political agenda.
Moderator of the Uniting Church Synod of NSW and the ACT, the Rev. Myung Hwa Park, wrote to Premier Baird in July asking that he “adopt inclusionary zoning strategies in your government’s long-term plan to improve housing affordability – and thus ensure that Sydney and other NSW cities are well-functioning, equitable and inclusive”.
Sydney’s soaring housing prices have pushed even basic rentals out of the grasp of most people on lower incomes. Ms Park’s letter cited Anglicare’s latest Rental Affordability Snapshot 2016 which found, in its survey of advertised rentals particularly in Greater Sydney and the Illawarra, a “lack of affordable and appropriate housing for people on low incomes”. Anglicare warned that tackling this would require multi-faceted reforms including “increasing supply of affordable housing … matched to people’s needs”.
This was strongly supported recently by visiting expert John Landis, Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, who in his article “Five ways Sydney could become an even better place to live” (Sydney Morning Herald, June 22), listed as his Number One: “Adopt an inclusionary housing [zoning] law.”
Sydney Alliance partners point to quality research showing current government approaches that rely on “leaving it to the market” or “building new houses” will have little or no impact on affordability. Clear and substantial targets for proportions of affordable-rent properties are needed. Such quotas have been successfully adopted in London, Amsterdam and New York – where research has shown no adverse impacts on overall housing prices or construction levels.
Affordable housing is often provided through non-profit management or developers, but can also be developed by the private sector. In Sydney, City West Housing was set up in 1994 to develop, build, and manage affordable housing. It delivered over 730 units of affordable rental accommodation in Pyrmont-Ultimo, Green Square, and North Eveleigh (which won the UDIA NSW Excellence in Affordable Development award in 2015).
But overall, less than 1 per cent of new supply in major renewal areas – such as Green Square and Victoria Park – has been dedicated to affordable rental units.
The Uniting Church and its Sydney Alliance partners are urging the Baird government to adopt a long-term affordable housing plan including a quota of around 30 per cent of affordable housing in all new developments where adjustment to zoning conditions has added value to the land. This will need active cooperation between state and local government, business, the non-government sector and the community.
