Aireys Inlet Affordable Housing Project

At its May Council Meeting, the Surf Coast Shire endorsed national not-for-profit housing provider, Housing Choices Australia, to proceed to the Project’s co-design phase.

The focal point for the co-design phase is an intensive deliberative workshop involving Housing Choices Australia and the members of the Community Advisory Group. The ‘design-in workshop’ is the converging of work undertaken by Housing Choices Australia in preparing their EOI and the design principles and layout preferences developed by the Community Advisory Group across the six occasions they met between March and May.

The Aireys Inlet Affordable Housing Project Phase Two Engagement Report provides summaries of the Community Advisory Group meetings and the methodology and outcomes of design-in workshop. 

Aireys-Inlet-Affordable-Housing-Project-Phase-Two-Engagement-Report.pdf(PDF, 264KB)

The Community Advisory Group met over six sessions to identify and refine the design principles that would guide their input into the co-design workshop and help them make recommendations on the built form, private open space, public spaces interfaces and traffic movement and parking.

Summaries of the Community Advisory Group’s discussion and deliberations are included in the Aireys Inlet Affordable Housing Project Phase Two Engagement Report

The tremendous and varied technical and lived experience expertise of Community Advisory Group members enabled a productive and insightful design-in workshop with Housing Choices Australia. The results of which can also be found in the Aireys Inlet Affordable Housing Project Phase Two Engagement Report.

Aireys-Inlet-Affordable-Housing-Project-Phase-Two-Engagement-Report.pdf(PDF, 264KB)

If you’d like to get in touch with a Community Advisory Group member send a request to ahooper@surfcoast.vic.gov.au

The first phase of community engagement concluded with an independently facilitated Design In workshop and informed the objectives for the EOI. Findings from the Design In and all of the other phase one community engagement activities can be found in the attached report You can review the report here(PDF, 5MB)

The methodology and results of both phase one and two of the Aireys Inlet Affordable Housing Project community engagement program are detailed in the below reports prepared by independents facilitators Wayfarer and RedRoad consulting:

Final-Engagement-Report-Fraser-Drive-Housing-Project-30-July-2023.pdf(PDF, 16MB)

You can also reach out to a CAG member via ahooper@surfcoast.vic.gov.au

Click here to view form.

Phase 1 September - November 2022 - Complete

• Establish EOI
• Community drop-in session
• Online surveys and submissions
• Community Advisory Group
• Design-In Workshop

Phase 2 February 2023 - Complete

Run and Assess EOI process

Housing Choices Australia endorsed by Council to proceed to the Co-design phase

Phase 3 May 2023 - Underway

Co-design process to the co-create the design concept

Phase 4 October 2023

Finalised proposal and funding strategy

Detailed design and construction

Phase 5 December 2024

Allocation

To explore the potential for further development of social and affordable housing on vacant land at 2 Fraser Drive, Aireys Inlet.

A portion of the site has housed residents in four affordable housing dwellings since the early 1990s.

A nearby community garden and Fraser Walk, public access pathway to Albert Avenue, would not be included in the project and would remain in Council ownership.

Social and affordable housing is required when the private rental and home ownership markets cannot meet housing need.

There is much evidence to suggest there is significant need for social and affordable housing in our shire.

We have heard from key workers, families, women and older residents struggling to stay in their communities due to a lack of affordable housing.

Private rental vacancy rates in the Surf Coast Shire are currently two per cent and there are 779 applications for social housing in the Surf Coast Shire, including 663 applications for housing in the Anglesea ‘broadband’ area which includes Aireys Inlet.

Currently Anglesea and Aireys Inlet have approximately 30 social housing dwellings and there are just under 100 social housing dwellings across the Surf Coast Shire.

Job vacancy rates remain high and local businesses and health organisations are struggling to find staff.

The shortage of key workers such as nurses and other specialised health professionals, teachers, early year’s educators, emergency service officers, hospitality and retail and health and beauty workers negatively impacts the social fabric and the economic prosperity of our communities and townships. 

Diversity in our accommodation mix sees people step into a variety of professional and civic roles, generating economic and social capital.

More information on Homes Victoria’s Victorian Housing Register including datasets can be found here

The Regional Development Victoria (RDV) have created a dashboard (link here) which tables the following data sets:

• Cost of rent and growth in rents (DFFH Rental Report- Quarterly)
• Cost of housing and growth in prices (Domain Housing Report- Quarterly)
• Housing and Rental stress (Census 2021)
• Rental Vacancy Rates (SQM Research – Monthly)
• Housing Stock on the market (SQM Research – Monthly)
• Dwelling Typology (RRV Analysis based on DFFH Rental Report- Quarterly)

Affordable housing is a broad term which includes social housing.

The term social housing includes public housing, which is state owned and managed housing, and community housing.

Community housing is housing provided by a registered housing agency or a community housing provider.

Both social and affordable housing build in, to differing extents, elements of eligibility and subsidy usually set through government policy.

The Planning and Environment Act 1987 defines affordable housing in relation to the needs of very low, low and medium income households.

Home Victoria’s Affordable Housing Rental Scheme and some Victorian councils have key and essential worker policies and programs that also tie affordable housing eligibility to the industry they work in.

Eligibility for social housing includes a defined income threshold for singles, couples and families.

Subsidy for social housing is between 25% and 30% of income.

Community Housing Organisations are not-for-profit organisations that provide safe, secure, and affordable rental homes for people on low incomes. Community Housing Organisations are:

• Not-for-profit registered charities that report annually to the Australian Tax Office and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
• Mission driven to provide safe, secure, and affordable homes for low-income renters who are priced out of the private market.
• Highly regulated and required to report annually to the Housing Registrar on a range of key performance measures and update the Registrar regularly on any significant issues that arise during their day-to-day operations.  These performance standards ensure high-quality rental housing services and the best outcomes for renters and prospective renters.

Community Housing Organisations have a proven track record and are experienced in property management, tenancy management and community development. They are deeply committed to the communities in which they work.

The Aireys Inlet to Eastern View Structure Plan was developed in consultation with community and establishes the strategic merit for the site to be developed as higher density housing suitable for older people, incorporating the community garden on the site.

Additionally, the site is well located for social and affordable housing.

Fraser Walk connects to Albert Avenue and a retail precinct including a small supermarket and post office is 250 metres away. Aireys Inlet Medical Centre is across the Great Ocean Road, 150m, and a bus service that runs to Geelong via Torquay and Waurn Ponds, and Apollo Bay via Lorne is available 150m away. Aireys Inlet Primary School is 300m. A secondary school in Lorne is 22km or Torquay 31km.

By removing the cost of land from the development, Council would be reducing the amount of capital a registered housing agency needs, and the amount of subsidy that they need to attract.

This would make the development more viable and allows the selected registered housing agency to invest in the quality of the build and in other social and affordable housing projects.

The broader social and economic benefits of facilitating social and affordable housing would be established in perpetuity through an affordable housing agreement with the registered housing agency.

Any proposal that includes, for example, the discounted sale of the land would be subject to a council resolution.

As of April 2023, the estimated value of the whole site is $3.5M.

The annual rental revenue from the existing social housing is approximately $61,600.

Registered housing agencies build high-quality, architecturally designed residential developments. New properties are built to the highest possible environmental standards (7 Star Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme or NatHERS rating).

As described below, the design requirements for housing developed as part of Victoria’s Big Housing Build are more stringent than many private developments. The unique environmental, social and heritage values of the neighbourhood will be considered.

Additionally, while we don’t know exactly what the housing will look like and how many people it will house, community members will get a say through two phases of community engagement.

The first phase of community engagement informed the objectives for the Expressions of Interest. Download the Community Engagement Finding Report(PDF, 5MB)

The co-design process will begin once a preferred EOI respondent has been selected and will bring together architects from the registered housing agency and a community advisory group of ten community members with technical and lived experience expertise.

The co-design process will also consider the findings of the Design In workshop and generate design and programming solutions to issues relating to the site, built form, public open space interface with the community garden and Fraser Walk, etc. 

Clause 52.20 Victoria’s Big Housing Build was introduced on 1 December 2020 through Amendment VC190 to the Victoria planning provisions.

Clause 52.20 removes the need for a development funded by the Big Housing Build to obtain a planning permit or scheme amendment and replaces these processes with a streamlined development approval process that:

• Exempts scheme requirements that would ordinarily apply, however, does not exempt certain scheme requirements such as bushfire management, environmental audits and environment effects statements.
• Requires consideration of the planning provisions that would ordinarily apply such as heritage, design and environmental issues.
• Exempts the requirement to notify surrounding properties and review of decisions, however, a community consultation process, completed to the satisfaction of the Minister, is required.
• Includes requirements and development standards (based on ResCode and Better Apartments) to support faster decision making, certainty and the amenity of adjoining neighbours.

More information about amendment VC190 and the operation of Cl 52.20 can be found at Amendment VC190 questions and answers at the Planning Victoria website.