Northern Rivers, NSW Australia - The Women's Village Collective is proud to announce its upcoming workshop on Creative Housing Solutions - What you need to know. The event will take place on Tuesday, 2nd May at the Byron Theatre, 69 Jonson St, Byron Bay from 10am to 2pm.

The workshop will provide attendees with valuable information on different land and housing models, including co-housing and land share options. It will cover topics such as regulations for tiny homes, dual occupancies, community titles, and other land uses. Speakers from the planning department of Byron Shire Council, town planners and property experts will be on hand to provide advice on creative housing solutions and answer questions about planning and property regulations.

Attendees will learn about expandable dwellings, manor houses, and other creative housing options. The event is designed to help individuals understand what it takes to build a village, and what can be done in the region to support creative housing solutions.

This workshop is part of a series about land and finance to help individuals achieve long-term, secure, and affordable accommodation. The Women's Village Collective will provide ongoing community development and support to help attendees stay informed and committed to achieving their housing goals. The goal of Women’s Village Collective is to make real and lasting changes that will benefit the whole community by helping women who are in housing distress.

Women’s Village Collective are developing plans to provide sustainable and affordable housing models to secure short, medium, long term and permanent accommodation by engaging with property land holders, councils, local and state housing bodies, and lending institutions. At WVC they are working towards ‘Rent to Own' and ‘Shared Equity’ housing pathways to get women into secure and lasting accommodation as well as creating financial preparedness, educational content, and pathways out of poverty.

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“At Women’s Village Collective, we believe in advocating for systemic change to ensure housing security for everyone. This workshop is about creating solutions within the existing framework that can help people access security and find creative ways to get into property together. “ says Sama Balson, Founder of the WVC.

There are limited seats available for the live event, and lunch will be provided. A capped number of childcare spots are also available for attendees with children, attendees are encouraged to book a ticket for their child and state their age.

To learn more about the Woman's Village Collective, the latest updates, and to become a member, please visit www.womensvillagecollective.org.au.

If you are in housing insecurity or you would like to support the mission to help women secure pathways to long term safe affordable homes or  provide access to accommodation for women and children, please contact the WVC team at: admin@womensvillagecollective.org.au

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“Our house was flooded and uninhabitable after the floods and my children and I were moving around for months after. The WVC housing support has enabled me to have a place to rest, recoup and address my health and well-being as well as enrol my son into school and plan for future housing”. - WVC Member

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You can book you ticket here.

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Q&A With Founder Sama Balson

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Can you tell us about the Women's Village Collective and its role in addressing the housing crisis?

The Women’s Village Collective (WVC) provides advocacy, links to supporting services, grants to rebuild lives and help to fund some of the costs of insecure housing. We are currently holding our next workshop at the Byron Theatre on May 2nd, followed by ongoing community development, to help provide valuable planning, legal and financial advice to support people to get into their own long term affordable homes. We’ve done round table meetings with experts, to gather a hive mind of ideas, many of which will be delivered in the upcoming workshops.

We work with landlords who want to help provide affordable leases to tenants, we currently have several women and their children housed. We create partnerships with other services where people need more support than we are resourced for, also partnerships with housing providers that have helped women into housing outcomes. Additionally, we have social media platforms to list and seek housing.

Our next goal is really about getting land and implementing housing models and outcomes to support people who are ready to move into shared equity home ownership.

How would you describe the current state of the housing crisis, particularly as it affects women and marginalised communities?

The housing crisis is particularly hard-hitting on single income families and the elderly community who don’t have the capacity to compete with double income earners in the current rental climate. Rents have skyrocketed and if you’re in the rental market, nowadays you’re essentially living in insecure housing, at the whim of a hopefully conscionable landlord who’s not wanting to capitalise on the exorbitant cost of hiked up rental prices.

What we see in our organisation is particularly carers, being penalised and locked out of rental homes. Carers are predominantly female, with close to 90% single parent households being women lead and with the largest growing cohort of homeless people being women over 55, many of whom took time out of the workforce to raise children. It seems terribly unjust that those who have given so much, are the ones being left behind and not being cared for.  

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What are some of the root causes of the housing crisis, and how can we address them?

Systemic bias, that leaves people behind, partnered with a capitalist system that has forgotten the value of social wealth and wellbeing as  fundamental to a healthy society.  

Apathy; when we exempt ourselves from the responsibility of playing our role in maintaining a healthy balance and look outward to other organisations and institutions to come and “fix” the problem, we are complicit in the ongoing issues. There is a sense of disempowerment or helplessness when we forget to look at ourselves as part of the solution. It’s my belief that if we can all take responsibility and do what is in our capacity to be part of the solution. Whilst we do need to lobby for systemic change, we can also be part of a changing system, one that takes care of the elderly, of the mothers, of the children and more vulnerable in society.

Many houses in the holiday rental market could be turned over to the permanent rental market overnight and this would essentially end the housing shortage.

As landlords, there's absolutely no need to participate in the greed that's overtaken the rental climate. If a Real Estate Agent suggests you could fetch an extra $200 a week for a rental property, look at other ways to generate income, that is’t at the expense of someone's small wage. People are going without food and medical needs to maintain high rents, ask yourself if you really want to participate in this? Can you choose to be a just and reasonable landlord and not participate in the housing crisis?

Developer contributions:  if you’re a developer, making a high margin of profit from home sales, please consider giving back a minimum 20% to the affordable housing market. List some of the properties with a local registered Housing Provider, you’ll still fetch 80% market value for your home and you’ll provide a home for someone in need.

Empty rooms: Many people have empty rooms in their home. Is it possible to consider creating  separate living spaces in your existing home and perhaps utilise separate bathrooms and create a divide in your home, where you still share a kitchen, but have other separate spaces that can provide a home for another individual or family? Many people have families that have left home and empty rooms, that could help generate some income to the land holder, and provide a safe place to call home for someone.

Shared Equity, here’s one of the most practical solutions of all. Going into property with others and creating separate living spaces. Look into creating an expandable dwelling” separate spaces off one existing building that can create part of a home for someone else. This is viable as a land holder, selling part of a property, or going into property purchase together with others. Get a good lawyer to set up how to end contracts and all the details,  certainly consider giving it a go.

Look at existing best and highest land use of properties; can your property  facilitate a manor house ( 4 homes under one roof) Or a pavilion home/ expandable dwelling, separate spaces with a shared kitchen. Is the land title a dual occupancy, can it hold a secondary dwelling or granny flat? Could a second house be built there and if so, would you consider a shared equity land sale, so you can retain your home and facilitate another party to live and build next door? Make an appointment with a Town Planner, Consultant or department of planning at your local Council and see if you may have multiple dwelling entitlements and if so, look at getting in touch with a group such as WVC or a private developer and let them know you’d like to create a dwelling for another person. Get creative, there could be some terrific win/win options for you to share and maintain a property with another person or group and reduce the cost of your own living situation.

Vendor finance: If you’re in the privileged position of owning property, would you consider vendor finance? An option to buy a share of the property and perhaps build that secondary dwelling or divide an existing home? It’s worth considering.

Advocate for systemic change. It's wonderful that the government is now supporting a trial of shared equity housing. Let's open it up to be shared equity outside of the nuclear family structure, or single person structure,  shared equity with other family members for example. That’s a terrific way forward.

Rent to own. Banks, government and private lenders, get on board! There are plenty of people paying off other people’s mortgages who still can’t access the hurdles of obtaining finance. Let’s look at the person’s track record of paying rent, drop the huge deposit required to secure a loan and help get people paying off their own or part of their own home. Governments could support Rent to Own options too,  they have in the past, this way people can accumulate some home equity and help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

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What are some of the most pressing challenges that women and marginalised communities face in accessing safe and affordable housing?

One of the biggest obstacles is in obtaining finance to access property, as well as the current structure of many property zonings, for example, one house on a block. The cost of paying for a standard one house on a suburban block is a financial prohibition for many single income earners, for example, single parents. Many banks create such hurdles, such as large deposits, that are virtually unattainable alongside current high rental costs. How can someone save a deposit whilst paying exorbitant rent? Financial institutions have a role in lowering the barriers.

Property prices are no longer what they were during the time of the Baby Boomer property boom. In a system without adequate social housing and so many in rental properties with no caps on so called “ market value” or regulated tenancy rights, tenants remain a “no cause eviction” away from homelessness.

The holiday letting industry is running riot without proper regulation that exists in many other countries, it’s sadly become about the highest dollar value and social value seems to be an afterthought.  

Women retire nationally with far less superannuation than their male counterparts, a combination of gender pay gaps, time out of the workforce raising children and working part time to maintain inadequate school hours to work full time, or exorbitant child care fees. There’s so many circumstances stacked up against single working parents, or women who have raised children in a system that wasn't created for or by them.  

The role of a carer is not valued financially. This is not the case in some countries, such as France, that acknowledges the contribution of the role of the carer upon retirement and buffers the retirement pension to be more equal to those who have worked full time. Remnants of a social infrastructure that acknowledges and financially endorses the role of caring, that our current system fails to do.

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What are some innovative housing solutions that the Women's Village Collective is exploring or implementing to address the housing crisis?

The main things we are wanting to explore further are: 1: Rent to Own housing 2: Shared Equity housing models 3:  Community Land Trust models, whereby a charity such as WVC can hold land in perpetuity for a cause ( eg, secure housing for women) and divorce the cost of land and house, whereby a community buys and sells property as shares on the land, whilst the land itself remains an asset of the charitable entity’s purpose.  Rent to Own I mentioned earlier, as a way of getting people out of the rental market and into securing some kind of home equity, as a step up on the property ladder.  Shared equity is a way to make homes affordable. If a group goes into land purchase together, be it a manor home ( four homes under one roof) A pavilion home, a Dual Occupancy, Multiple Occupancy or Community Title, then the group shares the cost of land, the responsibility of land maintenance and has the opportunity to form a supportive community.

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How does the Women's Village Collective work with local communities and policymakers to promote housing solutions and address systemic issues?

WVC keeps on raising awareness through media, through events and campaigns and working alongside local councils to make sure there is a spotlight on the issue and to make sure we get a seat at the table and create seats at our table for the solution driven conversations to take place. These above-mentioned solutions are the result of years worth of dialogue and working within the existing system, whilst advocating for a more just and inclusive system.

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Can you tell us about a specific project or initiative that the Women's Village Collective has undertaken to address the housing crisis?

We currently have the head-leases on several houses, where we secure the tenancy between the landlord, a rental agent and take the lease and associated responsibilities. We then have a selection process to make sure we house women and their children with local community needs, capacity to pay and other criteria, who would otherwise be overlooked by the real estate agents. These houses have been reduced from the current “ markets value”  by landlords with conscience who want to help. We have also housed women in affordable housing through our partnerships with existing housing providers.

During the Covid lockdowns we reached out to empty holiday rental properties to try to encourage them to open their rental homes to local people in need. We also purchased Glamping tents and raised funds to subsidise rental costs at holiday parks to house people in between homes. Though we are mostly volunteer run, so not resourced to deal with some of the complexities of issues that come in the homeless space, we have referral processes to help women who are falling through the gaps to access the services they may need.

We provided grants to flood affected families and raised funds to assist people with the associated costs of housing insecurity, such as moving costs and storage shed fees.

More than ever we are wanting to place ourselves  in the “homelessness prevention” space.  To help people before they become homeless.  People perfectly capable of paying rent in a “ normal" rental market that are in housing stress and facing housing insecurity at risk of homelessness through empowering people to take the steps and work together in facilitated community development to get into their own homes and get financially prepared and learn what options are available and how to achieve them.

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What are some ways that individuals and communities can get involved with the Women's Village Collective's work to address the housing crisis?

We are seeking volunteers to help in current projects. We would love to hear from landlords who are committed to helping end the housing crisis, to list their properties on our social media platforms, website or offer affordable housing to the community. Philanthropists are welcome to donate funds to help bolster and strengthen our organisation with much needed funding to deliver housing outcomes and resources. People with skills in the housing space are always welcome to get involved and bring their expertise. We are grateful to have local government Councillors, legal professionals and people with property experience amongst our team of advisors. If you have the capacity to offer Pro-Bono skills and resources  we’d love to hear from you!

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How do you envision the future of housing in our society, and what role do you see the Women's Village Collective playing in shaping that future?

I would hope through our advocacy and a united voice with other like minded groups,  that we can create a housing system that is more inclusive, a governance system that values caretakers and takes care of all its people. I believe that while we advocate for social change and housing justice, we can also empower people to work within existing systems to get a leg up on the housing ladder and into housing security by sharing the responsibility of property through shared equity and building better systems of finance. As a charitable organisation, with the right financial mechanisms, we have the capacity to separate the cost of house and land to make housing more affordable and accessible to those who have been excluded from secure housing..

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What message would you like to send to policymakers and community leaders about the urgency of addressing the housing crisis and the importance of centering the needs of women and marginalised communities in those efforts?

As leaders it's vital to listen to the communities they are hoping to support. The communities have the answers, women and other marginalised communities know what they need, it's time to pull up a chair, listen and take action. Make sure that those with lived experience are paramount to policy making.  If someone who owns property, lacks lived experience and doesn’t understand the nuances of what is required, for any marginalised community locked outside the housing market, then listening is key. One group can not create solutions for a group they do not represent without community engagement and allowing the answers to come from the people they hope to serve and support.

Social housing in its current state, is holding people back from bettering their lives, a rent to own incentive rather than keeping people locked in lower incomes would be incredibly helpful to break poverty cycles.

The government shared equity scheme is a great initiative, a step in the right direction,  but it needs greater nuancing , such as shared equity for more than one person or couples, shared equity between two single parents or parents and adult children for example.  

Rent to Own pathways, create ways for people who are already paying off someone else's mortgage to get into their own homes.

State Governments need to consider rezoning of rural properties that are not operating as prime agricultural land to allow more dwellings on large land lots. Look at converting from RU2 zoning to RU4. to allow two extra houses on rural lots, as workers cottages, where additional households can support and nurture the land and provide housing that is not high density, but rather low impact and complementary to enhancing the land and natural environment. (Many hands make light work) Expand RU5 Village zones, and grow the smaller villages where appropriate infrastructure already exists.  Revise the RU2 zoning on holiday cabins to allow them to become long term cabins.

Regulate Holiday rentals and charge commercial rates on holiday letting. Encourage reduced rates on permanent rentals for landlords renting to long term tenants. Financially Incentivise and disincentivize those who are and are not providing accommodation for the community.

Help break the rental cycle, get creative with pathways into home ownership, such as Rent to own and Shared Equity options.

Work with Charitable organisations to set up Community Land Trusts, build cooperatives and support small communities, Community Title landholdings and Multiple Occupancy structures.

The solutions exist, they need support from all levels of government.  If the Prime Minister, or Housing Minister wants to sit down for a cuppa, I’d be happy to share what years of asking questions, listening to answers and lived experience has helped me understand in the housing space.  Grass Roots Movements such as WVC have an important role in informing departments on what is needed, there’s always a space at our table for those willing to pull up a chair.