Everyone should have the right to a safe, secure and affordable home.
But NSW is in a housing emergency. People are struggling with skyrocketing rents, unfair evictions, and a chronic lack of public, social, and affordable housing.
Years of the Liberal government's unfair tax breaks to big developers and wealthy investors has created a housing system that puts profit before people's right to a home.
The Greens have a plan to make housing affordable, safe and secure for everyone. We will cut rents, end unfair no grounds evictions and build enough public and affordable housing so no one is homeless.
The Greens believe that housing is a basic right. It's time to make big changes so that everyone has a home that’s affordable and safe and secure.
THE GREENS NSW WILL:
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Fund 100% of the Resilient Homes Program
One year on from the 2022 Floods the Northern Rivers has not seen a single dollar of the Resilient Homes Program delivered to people who need their homes raised, retrofitted or relocated.
With an already extreme housing crisis, this has pushed many people out of our region and many more into homelessness. Only the Greens are committed to funding 100% of the Resilient Homes Program.
The fossil fuel industry has caused a climate crisis which is driving catastrophic weather events. The floods that have devastated NSW this year follow a string of increasingly damaging climate disasters
with bushfires, floods, storms and droughts becoming more frequent and more destructive.
The Greens believe that coal profits should they pay for our recovers, and that communities should be empowered to decide how those funds will be used to prepare them for an uncertain future. That’s why we have a plan to transform our towns and cities so that they can better withstand future climate disasters, led by the community and paid for by the coal industry that has caused the climate crisis.
Read our plan to make climate criminals pay for our flood recovery
Homes for community, not short term holiday letting
It’s getting harder and harder for people to find long term rental homes due to the expanding business in short term holiday letting. Families and local workers are finding it almost impossible to find homes in key regional areas and in popular city suburbs as they are being locked out of many properties which were previously available.
Climate fueled fires and floods have devastated communities and supercharged the existing housing crisis in NSW. Short Term Holiday Rentals have left displaced communities of thousands of people unable to find affordable rental accommodation where they live.
The Greens believe that residential properties should first and foremost be homes for people to live in.
Currently the NSW Liberal National government has 180 day limits on non-hosted Short-term Rental Accommodation in some areas throughout NSW. But limiting the number of days per year that non-hosted properties can be leased, won’t solve the problem as these properties won’t be available for long term renters for up to 6 months each year.
Read the full plan here: https://www.greensforballina.com/regulate-sthl
Control rents and stop unfair evictions
More and more people are at risk of homelessness and are in rental stress, having to pay far more than 30% of their income in rent. Rents have risen hugely in the last 12 months and are simply too high. On top of that renters are at risk of unfair evictions - and can’t even be sure they can have their family pet live with them.
The millions of renters in NSW need stronger rights to protect them against dodgy landlords and agents and massive rent hikes. Rents are rising four times faster than wages - in some cases by 30% since the start of the pandemic with renters being forced to pay up to $3000 more per year on rent in 2022.
In regional NSW, house rents jumped 10.3% between Dec 2021 and Dec 2022 which is well in excess of annual wage growth. In the Ballina electorate floods have made it even harder to find a rental.
People who rent are living in constant fear of being evicted or having their rent hiked for asking for repairs or complaining about a rent increase because they know how hard it is just to find somewhere to live.
Money talks when it comes to real estate agents and big investors - and they hold all the power. This means people who rent are often subjected to unscrupulous rent bidding, invasive application processes and questionable third party platforms that put their privacy at risk.
We know that more and more people are life-long renters - and that means people who rent need to have long-term, secure leases and real protections to be able to make a home and put down roots in a community.
The Liberal National government and Labor have consistently voted against Greens rental reforms in the NSW Parliament over many years.We saw this most recently in November last year, when NSW Labor teamed up with the government to block the Greens latest bill to end no grounds evictions.
THE GREENS NSW WILL:
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Make massive investments in affordable housing
Everyone in NSW should have access to homes they can afford.
The Greens believe that access to accessible, sustainable, affordable housing is crucial to health and well being, and should be considered as critical infrastructure.
We think that everyone should have more options for long term affordable housing including government incentives for cooperative housing and community land trusts which would significantly reduce some of the huge costs associated with private home ownership.
Big corporate developers are cashing in on windfall profits in housing whether it’s private home purchases or large scale build-to-rent projects. We are calling for 30 percent of all these new private housing developments to be long term, affordable homes.
Local councils are well placed to drive an increase in affordable housing throughout NSW and they should be empowered to do this and have targets to meet so that people are able to afford to live in the areas where they work.
The Greens will make housing affordable by:
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Housing first - End Homelesness
No one in NSW should be homeless. Ending homelessness is a choice and it’s a choice we can make right now.
Successive governments have not only failed to maintain and increase public housing in this state but have been selling off public land and housing at an alarming rate. We’ve got a huge lack of affordable housing and a massive public housing waiting list.
Housing is not a privilege and it’s up to governments to ensure that there’s enough supply of public, social and specialised housing to meet the current critical need.
It is critical that First Nations owned and operated social housing is funded as a priority if we are going to solve the homelessness crisis and face the ongoing impacts of colonisation and displacement.
Older women, disabled people, young people, and those from the LGBTIQ+ community are disproportionately at risk of homelessness. With the number of older women facing homelessness increasing drastically over the past years, the need for targeted programs and specialised housing and services is crucial.
The Greens plan to end homelessness starts with NSW committing to a Housing First approach which provides people with a home and supports them with the wrap-around services they need.
We commit to a massive investment in public, social and affordable housing, radical reform of the rental market and to fully fund the specialist homelessness services that are needed to end homelessness in NSW.