Affordable rental housing

The Hunters Hill Trust fully recognises the need for affordable rental housing in Sydney and we are not opposed to affordable housing being located in the Hunters Hill LGA where the zoning is appropriate. As well, we are not opposed to Boarding Houses being built in Hunters Hill.

However a number of DAs for boarding houses have recently been submitted under the SEPP Affordable Rental Housing as a way of developing sites that would otherwise be too small and unsuitable.  We do not accept that this is affordable rental housing because there is nothing either in the LEP definition or in the SEPP to determine a rent cap that might be applied.  They will be rented out at the going market rate.

How far have we ‘progressed‘ since these affordable housing options were developed for low income families a couple of hundred years ago?

cottages in Blaise hamlet built in 1811 to house retired servants of Blaise Castle (Image: National Trust UK)

WH Lever built Port Sunlight village for his soap factory workers 1899-1914. 800 houses for 3,500 residents (Image:The Guardian)

There are many reasons why Council should reject the current DA for a boarding house at 2 Flagstaff Street Gladesville, including:

• over development of the site
• non-compliance with key aspects of the planning controls
• location is an increasingly busy shopping area service street and unsuitable for this type of development
• lack of alternative emergency exits and potential for disaster if there is a fire
• adverse impact on the neighbourhood (not enough car parking, overlooking adjoining property, lack of architectural merit, would prevent potential amalgamation with adjacent sites to allow a more rational re-development of the site).

See the Trust’s detailed submission to Council.