THE first tenant has moved into one of eight refurbished social housing units in Parramatta Park as part of a state government and Access Community Housing Company (ACHC) partnership to address the housing crisis in the region.
As part of the QuickStart Queensland program, the state government allocated over $300,000 in funding to refurbish eight units in Parramatta Park on Grove St and $8.5 million to build 23 dwellings for social housing in Earlville by 2025.
Both projects are being delivered with Cairns’ not-for-profit Access Community Housing Company (ACHC).
ACHC chief executive Liz Brown said eight women would be housed at Parramatta Park, while the Earlville project would have 23 units suitable for small families.
“We’ve partnered with the Queensland Government under the Queensland Housing Investment Growth Initiative with two projects,” Ms Brown said.
“The first one was the refurbishment of eight cottages in Parramatta Park which has just been completed, and we’re in the process of identifying suitable tenants, with a first tenant already in the property.
“The second project is the development of a site at Earlville which had been used for social housing, which will involve the redevelopment of the site with up to 23 apartments. We’re yet to start the planning process.
“We expect the project to be completed by July 2025. We’re hoping the apartments in Earlville will be one and two-bedroom, so we might be able to have small families or couples in those units.”
However both ACHC and Shelter Housing Action Cairns (SHAC) said it was nowhere enough for the current housing crisis. Ms Brown said although AHCH was glad to provide the projects, this was only a small dent in a massive crisis.
“Projects like these are critical,” she said.
“And it’s hard because you look at the scope of what’s required, and the latest figures identified that by 2041 we need to have built another 7500 homes in our region, but you have to keep going.”
SHAC is a not-for-profit that provides support services and crisis accommodation to families at risk of homelessness.
SHAC chief executive Sally Watson said, although it was encouraging to see a commitment from state government, the response would not address the ongoing crisis.
“It’s great to see government attacking the issue seriously. Unfortunately, looking at recent data, the current government response is not going to go anywhere near meeting the need shortly or even in the next decade,” Ms Watson said.
“The only reasonable immediate response, besides a bigger commitment to investment in capital builds, is to do something about income support which is the federal government’s responsibility.”
The state government also announced that a prefabricated house factory would be coming to Cairns to build more homes.
Public Works Minister Mick De Brenni said the Far North site could build 26 houses annually.
The location of the factory is still to be announced. Ms Watson said more information was required about the project.
