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A Fair Go Starts With A Home

If you work here, you should be able to live here.

Essential workers like retail, fast-food and warehouse workers keep Newcastle, the Hunter and the Central Coast running.

But right now, too many essential workers can’t find a safe and affordable place to live in the communities they work in.

That’s not fair, and it’s not sustainable.

EMAIL YOUR LOCAL MPSHARE YOUR STORY

Housing

The problem

Australia is in the grip of a housing crisis – and it is hitting workers in Newcastle, the Hunter, and the Central Coast hard.

Workers in the retail, fast-food and warehousing industries are essential to our region, but they’re being driven out.

You shouldn’t have to commute hours, share overcrowded housing, couch surf or live in constant stress just to stay employed.

Access to safe and affordable housing in the region is spiralling out of reach for working people.

Rents are rising faster than wages.

Home ownership is out of reach for low-paid workers.

Social housing waitlists stretch for years.

Young workers have almost no pathway to an affordable roof over their head.

What needs to change

The NSW Government must deliver:

  • Major new investment in social housing

  • Genuinely affordable housing for low-paid workers

  • Faster delivery in Newcastle, the Hunter and the Central Coast

THE SDA'S 10-POINT PLAN FOR HOUSING REFORM

The SDA has created a 10-Point Plan for Housing Reform. Find a full version here.

  • Fast-track the approval of build to rent proposals.
  • Encourage high quality modular housing based on a certified prefab pattern book.
  • Accelerate the building of more student accommodation.
  • Embed a minimum of 30% social and affordable homes for essential workers in planning rules for all public and private land and prioritise near key job hubs.
  • The Government must rebuild the pool of public housing, expand existing stock, and upgrade quality to ensure safe, affordable homes for all.
  • Remove artificial barriers to the development of appropriate land for the building of social and affordable homes, whether to facilitate the transfer of land between
    government agencies or uses permitted for special purpose zonings like places of worship.
  • Open up opportunities for Industry Superannuation funds to finance and invest in new housing, including refocusing the APRA performance test to better support members’ long-term financial interests.
  • Better regulate and/or penalise / tax short term rentals (especially in tourist resort areas) and reduce the estimated 140,000 homes (~1.3% of all homes) which are empty for reasons including speculative withholding.
  • Better regulate land-banking practices that restrict supply and call for reforms to rapidly bring more land and homes to market.

Tax reform to address the gross market distortion created by the overly generous concessions for passive investment in property under the capital gains tax discount
and the negative gearing scheme.

Your voice matters

Our elected representatives need to hear directly from the people affected.  That’s where you come in.

Will you send a message to your local MP and ask them to take action?

It only takes a few minutes, but it sends a powerful message.

EMAIL YOUR LOCAL MP NOW

Keep on sharing your story

We’re looking for people to share their stories of housing stress. We know the impact it is having on many workers and families in our region. Sharing your story helps puts a human face to this crisis.
Are you:
  • Struggling with rent increases?
  • Living further from work than you’d like?
  • Delaying major life decisions because housing is unaffordable?
  • Feeling like ownership is impossible?
When decision-makers hear real stories from retail, fast food and warehouse workers, it becomes harder to ignore.