MEMBER for Port Stephens Kate Washington is on a mission to solve the housing crisis in Port Stephens.

She wants temporary housing and she wants it now for our community – and has Tomaree Lodge set firmly in her sights.

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Ms Washington said a multitude of factors were impacting housing availability in Port Stephens, telling News Of The Area, “There is a change in demographic.

“There are long term renters who through no fault of their own are being evicted and cannot find another place to call home.

“You have the COVID effect where people have fled from Sydney to come to beautiful Port Stephens and you have the hot property market where people are selling, there is a combination of factors going on.”

Ms Washington said these factors were exacerbated by a lack of available public housing in the region.

“The State Government has not built new public housing in Port Stephens in over a decade and that has put pressure on the whole system.

“People who could have been in public housing are forced into the rental market putting stress on the whole system.

“Anyone on a fixed income is feeling under so much pressure now with the cost of living skyrocketing and housing affordability and rentals going up people have nowhere to go and they have no wriggle room in the first place
“The first three people who saw me at my mobile office last weekend in Nelson Bay were there because through no fault of their own they will shortly have nowhere to live.

“One was a grandmother with a twelve year old child.

“I am hearing daily about people who are worried about buying food for their families, because they have nothing left, they are the ones still at home and there are a whole lot of people that don’t have a home.”

Ms Washington said another wave of “mortgage stress is going to start hitting people soon”.

“This will potentially put more people into the rental market, so we have been looking for local solutions.

“Tomaree Lodge is a possible one in everyone’s minds except the State Government, I don’t accept the excuse that there is a plumbing issue on site – get a plumber.

“We have a crisis – we need some short term solutions to fix the current crisis and we need to plan for the longer
term,” she said.

By Marian SAMPSON