Carolyn Doherty and Doug Curran cut the ribbon to open Griffin Green. Photo: Griffith City Council.
An affordable housing development in Griffith opened on Wednesday (31 July), providing much needed accommodation for 40 to 50 residents.
While local government is not usually in the property development business, this particular project was a unique collaboration between Griffith City Council and not-for-profit Argyle Housing, resulting in the completion of 20 new units for social housing and 42 lots of build-ready vacant land to be sold to private buyers at affordable rates.
“We are proud to announce the official opening of Griffin Green. This project represents a crucial step towards ensuring that everyone in our community has access to safe and affordable housing. Griffin Green is not just buildings; it’s about creating a healthy and supportive community,” said Carolyn Doherty, CEO of Argyle Housing.
Griffith City Council general manager Brett Stonestreet told the crowd there was a hiccup in the project when the NSW Government surprised council by telling it it would need to pay commercial rates [$760,000] for the unused Crown land on which the dwellings were built, but former Argyle Housing CEO the late Wendy Middletown convinced the Argyle board to come to the party to cover those costs.
The longstanding Treasury policy of charging market rates for unused land has continued under the current NSW Labor government, despite its stated commitment to address what it calls a “housing supply crisis” in NSW by “identifying surplus public land that can be rezoned for housing and associated uses”.
Mr Stonestreet also paid tribute to the many council staff who worked for years to make the project happen, as did Griffith Mayor Doug Curran.
“It’s a testament to what can be achieved when government, a community housing provider, and the community work together for a common goal. The official opening of Griffin Green is a chance for us all to celebrate the positive impacts this collaboration will have on our community now and into the future,” Mayor Curran said.
Griffith mayor Doug Curran thanks all those who made this project happen. Photo: Griffith City Council.
Griffith has been struggling with a chronic housing shortage for the past five years. Less than one per cent of all properties in town are available to rent, while the average price of a rental has risen to $420 a week, which is unaffordable to low-income earners. As a result, many businesses have complained that they can’t get much needed new workers to move to town.
The Argyle Housing dwellings are what’s known as affordable housing, which means properties are rented or sold at below market rates to low- and moderate-income earners.
“Social housing and affordable housing are two different things … affordable housing is a set model that offers housing to people at 74.9 per cent of market value,” Argyle Housing CEO Carolyn Doherty said.
“In simple terms, if the market rent is $100, we can’t rent it for more than $74.90.
“It’s also income based; it’s targeted towards people in low- to moderate-income brackets. It’s not targeted to those on Centrelink benefits, which is what social housing does. It’s about focusing on key workers … retail assistants, baristas, teachers, nurses and paramedics, people very important to essential services.”
Griffin Green has been funded jointly by the Federal Government’s Building Better Regions Fund, Argyle Housing and Griffith City Council.
The project also includes an Argyle Housing office, a central green space and a basketball court.
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