‘Tiny houses’ could help solve affordable housing crisis
LOS ANGELES: Planning authorities are increasingly considering tiny house applications to help amelioriate the affordable housing crisis.
Northern Beaches Council could become a developer and provide affordable homes to help ease the housing availability crisis.
Council staff have been asked to come up with options to redevelop vacant land and buildings it owns that could end up as social and cheaper accommodation for essential workers and people on lower incomes.
It is even looking into having a trial of an affordable “tiny house” community on land it is not using and renting out flats above council community halls.
Tiny houses measure under 2.5m wide, 4.3m high and 12.5m long.
As part of a notice of motion moved by Greens councillor Kristyn Glanville, at a council meeting on Tuesday, staff have also been asked to consider whether housing supply could improve by amending planning rules to allow for smaller lot sizes and more dual occupancy homes.
An increase in the compulsory inclusion of 10pc of homes in new developments to be built as affordable homes will also be examined.
Cr Granville said she regularly hears from residents about their concerns with the “deeply unaffordable cost of living on the northern beaches”.
“While a sometimes heard refrain is ‘well, just move away of you can’t afford it here’, I think we have an important issue of social equity.
“Many of our essential workers, police officers, teachers daycare workers, can’t actually afford to live in the area where they work.
“It means we have people like nurses commuting three hours each way from places like the Central Coast.”
Cr Glanville suggested that so-called “shop-top” housing could be built above council community centres and that the council could enter into partnerships with social housing providers.
As part of her motion she said council staff could make recommendations about land “which might be suitable for further investigation to trial an affordable tiny house community”.
Liberal councillor Sarah Grattan supported the motion and told the meeting that there has been “an exodus” of young people from the northern beaches because it was to expensive to live here.
Another Liberal councillor, David Walton suggested that more affordable shop top housing could made available, through rezoning, along major roads.
“We do need to add to the (housing) supply, simple as that.”
Greens councillor Miranda Korzy said there were 9000 vacant properties on the northern beaches, many of them held by investors waiting for prices to rise, and others were in the Airbnb market.
The meeting heard that at the new Frenchs Forest Town Centre development, for example, at least 15pc of the homes, to be built where The Forest High School is now, must be affordable housing.
Council staff will report back to the council in December.
