Greater Whitsunday Communities (GWC) and Regional Development Australia Greater Whitsunday (RDA) have partnered and initiated the Housing Summit to identify collaborative solutions to the housing stress being felt across the Greater Whitsunday region.
Stakeholders from across the housing industry came together in October 2022 to guide the project.
The first initiative in December 2022 was to hold a housing round table where the following key themes emerged from the consultation:
1. Availability and diversity of choice
2. Affordability
3. Consumer needs
4. Roles and responsibilities.
A social and emergency accommodation working group has also been established to investigate safe sleeping spaces, storage facilities and mapping possible options for repurposing of housing.
Urbis have been engaged to carry out a research component to identify the baseline data and look at the current and future needs of all sections of the housing supply chain. This research will help inform the solution-based co-design workshop that will be held at the Housing Summit.
The Housing Summit will be held on June 6, 2023, from 9am to 4.30pm at the Mackay Turf Club. To date there are 120 attendees registered to participate in the summit. The summit will use Urbis’ research to develop solutions to address the Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday housing issues. The summit will also feed into the development of the Local Housing Action Plans along with a Regional Housing Action Plan.
The State Government recently announced funding that will be delivered through the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) that will enable all local councils in Queensland to develop local area housing plans. Our region will be working with the State Government representatives and LGAQ representatives to ensure our plans meet the State Government housing plan requirements.
If you have an interest or are part of the housing supply chain i.e. local governments, developers, builders, not-for-profit housing providers, industry bodies, financial institutions and housing support services, please consider registering to attend the summit to be part of the housing solution.
Contact Greater Whitsunday Communities to register for the Housing Summit on June 6.
Cr Karen May
Deputy Mayor
Mackay Regional Council
