Land unlocked for crisis housing

Two more blocks of land have been released to help ease demand for social, affordable and crisis housing in City of Moreton Bay.

Council land at 72-74 Cox St, Caboolture and 33 Oakey Flat Rd, Morayfield will be leased to not-for-profit community housing providers.

Bric Housing will develop, maintain and manage the Caboolture site and Coast2Bay Housing Group the land in Morayfield.

Expressions of interest (EOI) were invited from housing providers and specialist homelessness services for both Council-owned blocks.

Nine were received in stage one of the selection process, which was narrowed down to two for each site in stage two.

Councillors this week unanimously backed the recommendations of officers for the preferred community housing providers.

“It’s been just over 12 months since we took the decision to look at these two properties we wanted to put to purpose,” Mayor Peter Flannery said.

“I met these two community housing providers during my discussions with about a dozen of them.”

Mayor Peter Flannery said the current housing crisis was disheartening, and as the level of government closest to the people, City of Moreton Bay had stepped in to provide solutions and critical support for people experiencing homelessness.

“As a Council, we are motivated to make a difference in the area of housing and homelessness, and I am pleased that this idea, alongside our many other initiatives is coming to life.

“This is a new approach for City of Moreton Bay, and over the last 12 months, we have worked with the community housing and specialist homelessness services sectors to undertake a two-stage Expression of Interest process.

“It was rewarding to see four organisations submit nine different proposals and my thanks for their efforts, innovation and investment, goes to all of them,” Mayor Flannery said.

The proposals were assessed against a range of criteria including public benefit and alignment with strategy; partnerships; capacity to develop; and capacity to manage. Consideration was also given to the mix of social and affordable housing; the targeting of priority populations for tenancies; and the development type and density of the proposed buildings.

Council will work closely with Bric Housing and Coast2Bay Housing Group Ltd to rapidly finalise contracts so they can commence projects quickly.

Cr Karl Winchester added: “I think it is a great outcome and terrific use of our resources.

“Hopefully, out of this there is an opportunity to look at further locations particularly in other parts of the region that are struggling.”

An independent report commissioned by Council states that the City of Moreton Bay has less social housing dwellings per 10,000 people than Ipswich, Logan and Redland, and ranks fourth for communities and housing funding per capita, despite being one of the fastest growing areas in South East Queensland.

In addition to leasing Council land to community housing providers, Moreton Bay City Council has:

• waived more than $1 million in development fees and infrastructure charges in 15 suburbs across the City for the development of social and affordable housing
• committed $3.36 million to the new Peninsula Support Hub that is currently being built
• financially contributed to the Redcliffe Sleepbus
• employed two Council officers as Public Space Liaison to connect people sleeping rough with Department of Housing and specialist homelessness support services.