With families sleeping in tents and young people leaving the island for want of a home, today’s announcement of an urgent housing summit is welcome.
To ensure the path ahead is collaborative and solutions focussed, and doesn’t become a political football, we encourage the Premier to include the Greens and Labor in the conversation.
We also strongly urge the Liberals to commit to substantial investment in quality social housing and be open to innovative housing solutions.
Increasing the number of crisis accommodation and homelessness beds must be a first order priority so that no person is left to sleep on the streets or family, in a tent.
Restrictions on short stay accommodation are also a necessity if we are to free up homes for Tasmanians, along with pegging rent increases to CPI to prevent unscrupulous landlord profiteering.
As house prices soar, driven by interstate and overseas investors, a permanent stamp duty exemption for first home buyers and builders is needed, along with planning law changes that require the construction of a percentage of affordable homes in new housing developments.
Planning laws should also allow for co-operative living models and ‘tiny homes’ on existing blocks, allowing low impact increased density and highly affordable housing choices.
There are also more than a thousand livable spaces above inner city shops that could be converted to affordable housing, breathing extra life and vibrancy in to the city.
The housing emergency is heart breaking. It requires a whole of community response and we should all be ready to play a constructive role.
Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens’ Leader
