Housing: Meetings and presentations

The Covid-19 pandemic and recent flood events intensified further our Shire's acute shortage of affordable housing.

On Friday 17 June 2022, we held the Byron Shire Housing Forum to address the following:

• In the absence of large scale federal and state government investment, what role is there for the community housing sector, ethical developers, and local government to provide stable, affordable homes that supports our community?
• What examples and ideas might inform our approach to housing our community?

Find out more on our Byron Shire Housing Forum page

Three of Australia’s experts in the field of affordable and social housing headlined the Council forum Our Housing Challenge:  Local Communities, Local Solutions – a Byron Perspective held on the 10 May 2019 in Byron Bay.

Peter Mares (author of No Place Like Home:  Repairing Australia’s housing crisis), Tim Riley (Founder – Property Collectives) and Dr Kathleen Flanagan (Deputy Director of Housing and Community Research, University of Tasmania) addressed the forum providing their insight into housing affordability.

The Forum was recorded by BayFM. Listen to Our Housing Challenge

Our Housing Challenge Forum Presentations

• No place like home - Repairing Australia's Housing Crisis(PDF, 1MB) by Peter Mares
• A Deliberative Development Case Study(PDF, 13MB) by Tim Riley
• Affordable housing in a tourist town: Comparing Hobart and Byron Bay(PDF, 2MB) by Dr Kathleen Flanagan,

To agree on policy directions for delivering land and housing for a sustainable future, we held a charrette with community representatives and State Government agencies.

The findings of the charrette helped inform the draft Residential Strategy.  

We held the Byron Housing Roundtable as a follow up to the successful Byron Housing Summit held in 2017.

The purpose of the Roundtable was to discuss where Byron Shire is now 18 months on from the Summit, and where does it need to be to further support and deliver affordable housing outcomes for the community.

The Roundtable was arranged around themes to look at the following areas:  

• Housing types and models
• Tenure types and security
• Planning enablers and barriers
• Finance and investment models

 We continue to progress work on the four key actions agreed on the day to address housing needs in the Shire:

1. Legal / governance - Structures
2. Development opportunities
3. Planning/policy reforms
4. Communication/education 

Housing Roundtable Presentations

• New Models for Sustainable Affordable Housing (PDF, 5MB)by Koho
• Partnering with Councils to increase Affordable Housing(PDF, 835KB) by AHC (National Affordable Housing Consortium)
• Finance and Investment Models(PDF, 1MB) by SEFA Innovative Lending

The Housing Summit was designed to shine the spotlight on the unique challenges in the affordable housing sector.

The Housing Summit bought together stakeholders from government, housing providers, private industry and community to look at current policies, development practices and programs for housing and to look at what could be done differently to improve the availability and supply of housing in Byron.

See the Storyboard Sketches(PDF, 8MB) for an overview of the Housing Summit topics.

Housing Summit Presentations

• Sustaining future regional growth: Affordable housing industry capacity(PDF, 158KB) by Prof Hal Pawson (Associate Director, City Futures)
• Local Case Study: The Kollective Life(PDF, 9MB)  . by Adam Bennett-Smith (Director, Koho)
• The state of social & affordable housing in Byron Shire(PDF, 2MB) by John McKenna (CEO, North Coast Community Housing) 
• Social finance and innovative housing models: Partnering for social impact(PDF, 2MB) by Hanna Ebling (Social Enterprise Finance Australia) 
• Homeshare: Easy to say, difficult to do: what the research is telling us(PDF, 291KB) by Barbara Squires (Director, Barbara Squires Consulting)
• Shared equity in practice through BuyAssist Australia(PDF, 33MB) by Graham Marshal & Mike Myers (National Affordable Housing Consortium)
• Local Case Study: Insights and the Bruns Ecovillage model(PDF, 52KB) Watch the presentation by Kelvin Daly (Bruns Eco Village) 
• Alternative housing and affordability(PDF, 3MB) Watch the presentation by Gary White (NSW Government) 
• Strategies to respond to community resistance in affordable housing(PDF, 200KB) Watch the presentation by Wendy Hayhurst (NSW Federation of Housing Associations)
• National Case Study - The Nightingale Model(PDF, 4MB) by Jessie Hochberg - Nightingale

For more information read the Housing Summit issues action plan Report 13.16 presented to Council on 22 June 2017, resulting in Resolution 17-260.