Bega Valley Shire Council takes a step towards fixing shortage of crisis accommodation

In two months, Bega Valley Shire Council will be presented a report on a draft Local Approvals Policy (LAP) that would potentially enable it to address the shire’s dire shortage of crisis accommodation. It would create a pathway for other councils while the NSW Government conducts its ‘Manufactured Home Estates, Caravan Parks, Camping Grounds, and Moveable Dwellings’ review.

Some two years ago, the Bega Valley Affordable Housing Strategy estimated the shire needed at least 100 dwellings per year to accommodate people at risk of long-term homelessness.

In the meantime, service providers like Mission Australia have limited crisis accommodation.

Not-for-profit Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast (SJA) has been providing crisis accommodation, principally caravans, for more than 12 years.

Since SJA launched the ‘It’s Up To Us’ campaign in June 2021 to increase the supply of the shire’s crisis accommodation, the community has supported it with more than $500,000 funding.

SJA has used some of those funds to provide eight crisis transitional units or moveable dwellings.

However, SJA has been in a legal stoush with the council over whether there is a development approval pathway for the dwellings on Bega land. The council has said there is no pathway and that they are therefore illegal.

Roz Hansen AM is an urban planner with more than 40 years’ experience in Australia and overseas. She is a member of SJA, a member of the council’s Affordable Housing Implementation Group, and the author of the draft LAP.

“Under the Local Government Act 1993 councils can approve a LAP which allows them to set down criteria for a development to proceed without the need for a development application (DA),” Ms Hansen said.

“This particular LAP draft is solely for moveable dwellings providing crisis accommodation.”

The LAP has definitions including relocatable homes, caravans, and moveable dwellings. People living in the crisis accommodation must be referred by a service provider like Mission Australia and be linked to other associated service providers. There are restrictions on how long people can stay in the crisis accommodation and around the land, such as being not high flood or fire risk.

Councillor Simon Daly was willing to explore an LAP “to cut red tape and regulatory hurdles for crisis accommodation providers so they can provide services more quickly”.

He said moveable dwellings were already being used for that purpose in local caravan parks where operators had assessed them as fit for purpose for short-term accommodation.

“For an issue that is so chronic and the need so great, we have to explore every measure, pull every lever, and test every option to help the desperate people in our community,” Cr Daly said.

At the council’s 18 December meeting, his motion for council staff to write a report on the LAP draft, including the risks, obstacles and any budgetary or resourcing implications, was passed.

The report is to include input from the Affordable Housing Implementation Group and be presented at the March council meeting.

“The LAP is seeking to find a way to use moveable dwellings solely for crisis accommodation, while maintaining a very high bar for their use so it doesn’t open the door for anyone to put one on their property and be used as an Airbnb,” Cr Daly said.

Ms Hansen said it was a small but critical step because it got the issue on the agenda of council staff and the council, and started the conversation between the council, staff, and others.

Adding to the issue is that the shire has many young people seeking crisis accommodation but Mission Australia only services people over the age of 25.

“SJA can house that age group,” she said. “If those young adults can’t secure crisis accommodation, that doesn’t give them a good start in life.”

Ms Hansen said the situation was particularly dire at this time of year due to the adverse impacts of the short-term rental sector, such as Airbnb, on supply. “This is both a social and economic impact issue.”

Cr Daly said his motion provided time for council staff to do research and look at what other councils were doing.

“It is lowering the risk to council while providing a high bar for moveable dwellings use so that desperate people have access to crisis accommodation,” he said.

“So, let’s get the conversation happening and if the draft policy has to be finessed then let’s do it,” Ms Hansen said.

“Council should be finding ways to address it and not rely on NSW and Federal governments,” she said. “We are not asking for money or land, but for a pathway so we don’t spend 133 days or more waiting for a determination on the DA.”