CEO Pacific Link Housing, Ian Lynch, has joined RDACC’s Leadership and Collaboration Committee to help progress affordable housing initiatives on the Central Coast.

Following on from last year’s inaugural Affordable Housing Summit, this appointment will enable RDACC and Pacific Link Housing to continue to work together to help address this critical regional issue.

RDACC Chair, Lawrie McKinna, has welcomed Mr Lynch to the Committee.

“It’s great to have Ian as part of our Leadership and Collaboration Committee, as his involvement will help shine a spotlight on the critical issue of affordable housing in our community,” says Mr McKinna.

“This is not something we can continue to ignore and we need to come together to find the solutions to this increasingly significant community concern.”

RDACC CEO and Director Regional Development, John Mouland, says we need to improve awareness around what affordable housing actually means and why it is so important to our regional economy.

“The Central Coast is experiencing an affordable housing shortage and this is significantly impacting several of our critical industry sectors,” says Mr Mouland.

“When we’re talking about affordable housing, we’re talking about secure, long-term residences to house healthcare workers, hospitality workers, manufacturers and education professionals, to staff the industries that are so important to our regional economy.

“Without appropriate accommodation to attract and support chefs, nurses, doctors, teachers and other skilled workers to our region, these industries will collapse and this will sustain  insurmountable consequences for our entire community.”

Pacific Link Housing is the Coast’s leading provider of affordable housing, with more than 1,200 properties across the Central Coast and Hunter regions.

CEO Ian Lynch, says while great progress is being made, there is a lot to be done to bridge the gap between supply and demand for affordable housing on the Coast.

“We’ve made some major inroads in terms of the provision of affordable housing on the Coast but there is so much more that needs to be done,” says Mr Lynch.

“Pacific Link Housing has delivered 129 affordable housing residences over the past six years, with another 94 units in our development pipeline.

“We have completed award-winning developments in suburbs from Woy Woy to Belmont and between, however there still currently remains close to 14,000 people in need of affordable housing accommodation in our region and we need to consider how we best cater for them.

“I look forward to working together with RDACC to collectively bring innovative solutions to the table and advocate for the expansion of affordable housing to the benefit of our entire community.”

Find out more:

State of Affordable Housing on the Central Coast

What is Affordable Housing?

Affordable housing is open to a broader range of household incomes than social housing.

Affordable housing is managed more like a private rental property, but there are eligibility criteria and the managers are mostly not-for-profit community housing providers, or social enterprise licensed real estate agents.

When there is a vacancy for an affordable housing property, this is usually advertised and people submit an application to the manager as they would if they were applying for a property in the private rental market.

Affordable housing tenants cannot transfer between properties and household members cannot apply to succeed a tenancy.

Source: facs.nsw.gov.au