Greater Shepparton leaders and community members met on Wednesday to discuss the region’s affordable housing crisis.
The roundtable was called by City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali in light of the decision by council in June not to support the proposed social housing development in Shepparton’s central business district.
“A lot of energy was harnessed beyond that point and a lot of the community wanted to help influence a positive change,” he said.
“Those that can have an influence now have a greater knowledge of how important this issue is and the reality is, it’s not going to go away.”
Going forward, Cr Sali said the Committee for Greater Shepparton would reconvene the group, with council to step away to minimise any potential for conflicts when proposals came to the table.
“We put a proposal to the room to continue to work on this and look at what we can achieve in a six- to eight-month window,” C4GS chief executive Linda Nieuwenhuizen said.
She said there was an important opportunity to ensure the housing demand translated into Shepparton being an attractive and exciting place to live, work and study.
Beyond Housing chief executive Celia Adams attended the roundtable and said it was important to take into account general housing issues, such as for workers and students.
“We have a shortfall in the Nicholls electorate of 2900 social housing dwellings right now, but that doesn’t take into account housing more broadly,” she said.
“Housing that meets everybody’s needs is critical, and we have a shortage of it all,” she said.
Ms Adams said she hoped to see a focus on changing the narrative around social and affordable housing, which she said had been “damaging to the cause” in Shepparton.
“We need to recognise these people already live and exist in our communities,” she said.
“It’s young people leaving care, people under 25, older women, victim survivors of family violence, and we’re seeing increasing numbers of just stock-standard families who are struggling to make ends meet.”
Former Lighthouse Project chief executive Lisa McKenzie attended the meeting as a community member and said the housing shortage was a crisis for the local community.
“It requires the best thinkers in our community to come together and work really consistently over time to address,” she said.