Taking a strategic approach to housing

Wollongong City Council has adopted its new Wollongong Housing Strategy.

The important document focusses on delivering better housing opportunities for our community through the areas Council can influence – planning controls, development contributions, fees and charges and education and advocacy.

“Housing is a basic necessity – everyone should be able to have a roof over their heads and a safe place to live,’’ Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said.

“Council has a role to play in meeting the housing needs of our community and we’re able to support and facilitate housing opportunities through our city’s planning controls, how we collect money from developers and through the conversations we have with various stakeholders including other levels of government.

“Having a robust strategy around this is important because it provides Council with a way forward. Such a strategy sets out an agreed path which we can use to guide our decisions and advocacy.’’

The updated document replaces an earlier strategy and was developed to address a range of housing issues including housing supply and demand, emergency housing, social housing, housing for people with disability and affordable housing.

There was extensive engagement across the development of the Strategy including a third phase in late last year. During this final engagement phase 144 submissions were collected, and this feedback helped refine the document’s strategies and implementation actions.

“At Council we value community feedback and input, and this is an important phase in the development of any of our key documents,’’ Wollongong City Council General Manager Greg Doyle said.

“The Wollongong Housing Strategy will support Council’s work in the years moving forward and will allow us to continue to advocate on behalf of our community to stakeholders and with all levels of government for improvements that will benefit our community as a whole.

“Now this Strategy is in place, we’re able to move towards the implementation phase. This is where we will seek to make changes to the local planning controls to better manage housing outcomes across the city. Once again, our community’s voices will be important as we can work towards delivering the best outcomes for everyone.’’

Housing Strategy snapshot

While the Housing Strategy is available on Council’s website. Some key points from within the housing strategy include:

• Our city has an estimated population of 214,657 people who live in 89,337 dwellings, according to the ABS 2021 census. The NSW Government through the Illawarra Shoalhaven Regional Plan 2041 indicates Wollongong will be home to an additional 55,375 people and an additional 28,000 dwellings.
• The strategy supports the provision of more housing in suburbs that have good amenity as well as established and improving links to shops, jobs and transport. The document allows for an evolving character and growth of some areas.
• The city’s adopted vision is for housing that responds to Wollongong’s unique environmental setting and heritage, promotes the distinctive character of town and village centres, and strives to increase affordability in the housing market.
• Council will help respond to and manage homelessness through the provision of community services and facilities such as libraries and public toilets, through advocacy and maintaining public space and facilities.
• We will advocate for social housing numbers to be increased and in line with overall housing growth.
• Council will lobby for additional State funding to be directed to the Affordable housing sector and consider whether any Council operational land parcels are suitable to be leased for the provision of affordable housing.
• This Strategy builds on previous research carried out by Council including Housing Our Community discussion paper, the Housing and Affordable Housing Options Paper.