Members of the Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast who have been providing crisis accommodation for 12 years. Photo: Social Justice Advocates.
Over the past three months Bega Valley Shire Council staff have reviewed a draft Local Approvals Policy (LAP) that would potentially enable the council to facilitate badly needed crisis accommodation. The draft seeks to allow moveable dwellings used solely for crisis accommodation to be development application (DA) exempt.
The papers for the 19 March council meeting said a LAP couldn’t override the provisions of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 because consent would still be required for the land use.
“As such, the proposed LAP would not facilitate its intended outcomes in its current form,” the papers said.
In the March meeting, councillors voted in favour of the recommendation that staff would present a draft LAP to council for review and consideration at an unspecified later date.
The original draft LAP was introduced through Councillor Simon Daly’s notice of motion at the 18 December 2024 meeting.
His notice of motion stated that it was proposing to use the provisions of the Local Government Act 1993 (LG Act) to develop a LAP to “allow moveable dwellings and associated structures being used solely for crisis accommodation to be DA exempt while still meeting acceptable amenity and safety standards for the occupants of such dwellings”.
At the 18 December meeting it was resolved “that council staff provide a report to council on the benefits, opportunities and risks of developing a LAP to provide exemptions for moveable dwellings being used solely for crisis accommodation. This report should identify any resourcing or budgetary impacts, as well as any other considerations and impacts. The report would be due to be provided at the council’s meeting in March 2025”.
It was also resolved that council staff reviewed the draft LAP and provided feedback to council, plus sought feedback from the Affordable Housing Implementation Group on those two matters, and reported all feedback as part of the March 2025 report.
Mick Brosnan, Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast, and Kylie Furnell, SEWACS Youth Accommodation Program. Photo: Ian Campbell.
As part of its proposed new regulatory framework for prefabricated and manufactured buildings, the NSW Government has signalled its intention to remove manufactured homes from the LG Act (and from the definition of moveable dwellings) and treat them as building works.
The draft LAP focused on moveable dwellings that are not manufactured homes, and hence not defined as ‘buildings’.
The March meeting’s papers said detailed requirements relating to water and sewer connections, onsite sewage management systems, footings and smoke alarms must be developed, as well as consider which zones would be appropriate, and how bushfire, flooding, and land contamination hazards would be managed.
The papers said without that work, exempting crisis housing from DA approvals could result in unreasonable risk to health, safety, and the environment.
“The draft LAP provided through the notice of motion does not provide adequate parameters to manage these risks, and a significant amount of additional work, staff time, would be required to determine the appropriate settings,” the papers said.
Roz Hansen AM, author of the draft report, is an urban and regional planner with more than 40 years’ experience. She has had considerable involvement in social and affordable housing issues.
Ms Hansen is a member of Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast (SJA) which has been providing crisis accommodation, principally caravans, for more than 12 years, and is a member of the council’s Affordable Housing Implementation Group.
Ms Hansen said the draft LAP addressed all the risks identified in the staff report. “Despite an opportunity for staff to fine-tune or amend the draft, no suggested changes were forthcoming,” she said.
One of the crisis transitional units that Social Justice Advocates of the Sapphire Coast uses to provide accommodation for the homeless. Photo: Social Justice Advocates.
Council staff are looking at more options for temporary housing through a LAP. Those section 77 options include expanding the exemption for one caravan in association with a dwelling to two if the caravan occupants are members of the family living on the site, permitting temporary accommodation in association with a new build or an existing business, and extending the provisions for persons displaced by a natural disaster from two years to four years.
“People who are homeless because they have lost their job, or lost their home because of financial stress, or cannot afford to pay rent, or who suffer mental or health/wellbeing issues, or are in danger of being harmed, do not qualify under section 77 for a council exemption,” Ms Hansen said. “Those changes identified by staff won’t do anything to provide crisis accommodation for the shires’ homeless.”
Ms Hansen said SJA has two DAs to provide crisis accommodation that have been registered with the council’s DA tracker for more than 200 days.
“Are they seriously trying to facilitate crisis accommodation?”
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