Things have been hotting up in housing advocacy as well as the weather. After a great turnout (150) at our Parramatta ‘Everybody Needs a Home’ Forum, in partnership with the Sydney Alliance, Vinnies, Uniting, and the CRMC, we followed-up with attendance and a question and plea for action at the next council meeting, only to see the councillors actually pass their affordable housing policy after deferring it twice before.

Power to the people! This has been a great victory.

After a series of local assemblies in various LGAs we are now planning a larger rally at the Sydney Town Hall on Thursday 14 March as a partnership between the Sydney Alliance, Everybody’s Home and Vinnies.

The theme will be Housing + Power – recognising that affordable housing is only so if it is also affordable to live in. By and large, renters have been blocked from participating in affordable and renewable energy, meaning most of them are now paying more for their power than people on considerably higher incomes. Please check out our write-up in this newsletter and register now – we would like to have 1,000 registrations before Christmas so we can show our political decision makers that we are serious.

We welcome the announcement by the Minister for Planning, Anthony Roberts, that SEPP 70, an environmental planning law to which some councils have access to demand more affordable housing, will now be available to all councils without the need to demonstrate evidence that affordable housing is required in their LGA.

However, councils still need to apply and we encourage you all to speak to your local government councillors to find out if and when your council may have a plan to participate in SEPP 70.

May we – myself and the Churches Housing team – wish you, our members, stakeholders and collaborators, a very happy, safe and restful Christmas.