SWAN Hill councillor Bill Moar says the foundations have been set for a “bright future and growing municipality” with the launch of Housing Action: Greater Swan Hill.
Swan Hill Council said it was working to address the impact the housing crisis was having in regional Victoria, especially on the municipality’s people and businesses.
At its July ordinary meeting, the council noted the establishment of the action group and recognised the formation of an executive and task groups.
“The shortage of available and affordable housing is a direct handbrake on realising social and economic aspirations for the municipality,” council director of development and planning Michelle Grainger said in her report.
“A consultation process and the major housing summit held late last year have highlighted the problems for employers, employees and people looking to move to the region.
“All levels of government are urgently aiming to increase the supply of housing, particularly rental housing for key workers.
“Much more importantly, this work also revealed currently available resources to deliver solutions are lacking.
“Summit participants expressed clear interest in being involved in some form of community-led partnership that will bring together land, capital, grants, infrastructure and construction capability that will drive local solutions to local housing problems.
“Having expressed interest in contributing time, ideas, land, money and skills, key stakeholders have met on two occasions and are enthusiastic to work together for a common purpose: to drive social and economic prosperity through increasing the availability and affordability of housing across the municipality.”
Ms Grainger said in looking to build on the momentum from the housing summit, the key question was, “What do we want each sector in the complex housing eco-system to actually do, to unlock local potential that will solve the housing crisis that is unique to our local circumstances?”
“The task is to support each sector to embrace their role, collaborate with other partners and simply build more housing – more units and homes to both buy and rent,” she said.
Since the summit in November 2023, people interested in being part of the solution have met twice.
In May, about 35 people gathered and discussed the aims of establishing a community-based housing action group.
People represented a variety of sectors, including finance, construction, employment, health, development and real estate.
From this meeting, 18 people registered to be involved further as members and eight people as executive members.
At a meeting last month, three working groups were established to investigate the quantifying and qualifying demand for housing, vacant land mapping, and an investment and management model.
Cr Jacquie Kelly said the council had to do something as it “entertained” new industries.
“One thing said at the summit was prosperity is huge in this area but not matched by housing,” Cr Kelly said.
“It’s the cracks of what we need to solve.”
Cr Moar said this was the combination of many years of background work.
“About seven years ago, we held a Robinvale housing summit and it was recognised there was a housing issue, but we didn’t know how bad it actually was before the population study was done,” he said.
“We then realised there were more people here and not enough houses.
“It’s now not only Robinvale but all our small towns, and Swan Hill too.”
Cr Moar said the group should “aim very high … we need to”.
“Talking to one of our bigger employers in stone fruit, they employ 750 people at peak, which is more than the proposed mining and more than almonds,” he said.
“This has been under our noses the whole time but we have got to that point where we understand what we need.
“We need 500 houses and we needed them yesterday.
“The foundations are now made for a bright future and growing town.
“The buds are flowering.”
“As with the housing plan, we need it to be industry-driven, where we just keep our noses out and let the private sector get on with it.
“Council can facilitate with all the checks and balances ticked off.”
The Victorian Government recently set its housing targets for each municipality, allocating Swan Hill Rural City 1500 new houses by 2051 to supplement the existing 9700 houses.
