Council gives go-ahead to find creative solutions to housing crisis

In a notice of motion before Wagga Wagga City Council on May 13, deputy mayor Amelia Parkins and councillor Jenny McKinnon sought support for a report that would review council's ability to improve Wagga's housing situation.

The motion was approved unanimously by the eight councillors in attendance.

Cr McKinnon is hopeful that the report will be delivered by council staff in "the coming months".

"It means that now the staff will go away and actually look into issues that have been identified in the notice of motion," Cr McKinnon said to The Daily Advertiser.

Addressing the council, co-sponsor of the motion Cr Parkins acknowledged that community concerns about housing availability for domestic violence victims had amplified the issue.

"I think we've seen a pretty drastic increase in domestic violence in regional NSW, in particular, as compared to metropolitan areas, which is really concerning," Cr Parkins said.

"The phenomenal turnout we had recently at the rally against violence in the Victory Memorial Gardens shows how important this issue is to our community."

Cr Parkins also acknowledged the existing work of local services and not-for-profits that support vulnerable people seeking crisis accommodation.

The report will identify the short-term and longer-term opportunities of partnership with these services as well as government, developer and private entities.

"I want to make it super clear that the role of council is not to replicate or compete with any of those existing offerings," the deputy mayor said.

"But it is our community, they are our people, and I would really like council to do anything and everything that we can to help them in that."

During the council meeting, some councillors sought to acknowledge the role of the state and federal governments regarding housing.

Councillor Rod Kendall supported the report but said that funding must come from the state and federal governments.

"It's the policies of both the federal government and the state government that have led to the current shortage, particularly social housing, in Australia," Cr Kendall said.

"That's the level of government that needs to be directly funding it.

"But that doesn't mean that local government can't have a role to assist, which is what this notice of motion is effectively saying."

Councillor Richard Foley suggested councils do have the means to fund housing opportunities.

"Some people in this room on this council don't believe the council should play a role in providing housing per se," Cr Foley said.

"I think councils do have a role. Councils collectively, local government, have hundreds of millions dollars stacked into banks ... that could be used on some basis to assist communities."

A review of assets

The report would outline options for how the council could use its existing assets to improve housing affordability.

Forbes and Griffith councils were mentioned for their housing programs and strategies, in particular, strategies that utilised existing assets.

"I'd hopefully like to see added to this as well, what other councils are doing around the state to see if we can steal with pride, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel," Councillor Tim Koschel said.

Wagga mayor Dallas Tout encouraged the staff to reach out to other councils around the state "that might help some of the contents of this report".

Cr Parkins hopes the report will uncover creative and innovated solutions that "none of us have thought of at the moment".

She also expressed gratitude to the existing service providers and not-for-profit organisations.

"My heartfelt gratitude for the work you do. I couldn't do it," the deputy mayor said.