Local Housing Action Plan

The State Government provided funding for the development of Local Housing Action Plans (LHAP) for all Queensland Councils. The funding aligned with and delivers on part of the Local Government Association Queensland (LGAQ) 2022 Annual Conference Resolution #32. LHAPs are prepared under Action 5 of the Queensland Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2021-2025 to deliver the next stage of the Queensland Housing Strategy 2017-2027.

The Housing Crisis facing Queensland has been well documented in media and government communication channels. A lack of suitable and affordable housing is not only an issue for major metropolitan areas, but has wide-reaching effects in regional and rural Queensland, including Hinchinbrook Shire. A lack of appropriate housing has been identified as a significant risk to attracting and retaining employees across a range of industries in the region.

As demand for housing increases upward pressure on weekly rent occurs as supply of affordable and appropriate housing fails to keep pace with demand. Developing the Hinchinbrook Shire LHAP has allowed key stakeholders to collaboratively identify housing issues at a local level and make recommendations on appropriate response from State and Federal Governments. Council’s role is to facilitate the development of the LHAP in conjunction with the Local Government Association of Queensland. It is not Council’s intention to fund or provide resources to implement the action plan – however will advocate to and collaborate with other tiers of government and key stakeholders such as community housing providers and the private sector.
LHAPs are prepared to understand and prioritise key local issues and to develop operational arrangements that enable targeted housing outcomes.

Each local housing action plan aims to:

• Develop agreed priority actions to respond to housing need;
• Establish strong foundations for longer term housing responses to improve housing outcomes in the region into the future;
• Incorporate existing information and plans that help with developing responses to housing needs and acknowledge work already completed by the Council, state agencies, providers and not-for-profit organisations; and
• Enable stakeholders to work together to deliver the actions identified in the plan.

Given the similarities in demographics, economic profiles and anecdotal housing issues facing Hinchinbrook and Burdekin Shires, staff liaised to explore a joint approach in the development of the LHAP. Housing issues unique to each Shire were identified and recorded in the respective Council LHAPs.

In preparing the Hinchinbrook Local Housing Action Plan, Council engaged with a range of stakeholders including local community housing providers, social welfare providers, real estate agents and Chamber of Commerce.

Targeted stakeholder workshops were held in the second half of 2023. Following the workshops stakeholders were provided with a draft of the agreement for feedback and the feedback was incorporated into the draft Hinchinbrook LHAP. This report seeks Council’s adoption of the Hinchinbrook Shire LHAP, recognising that Council will convene a LHAP meeting comprising representatives from Council, relevant State agencies, community housing providers and other key stakeholder groups to oversee the actions, review findings, and report six monthly on progress and further develop the LHAP as a living document to address local housing challenges.