Community Emails

Our wonderful community has written to Sunshine Coat Council supporting our campaign, here are a few of those emails.

Email 1

To whom it may concern,

I am sending this letter to you as a member of our local Sunshine Coast Council. As I'm sure you are all too well aware, there has been a housing crisis in Australia for the past few years. As a place that so many are wanting to come and raise families, the Sunshine Coast is a region that is seeing the problems created from- not enough housing, especially housing affordable for low inclome single parents.

As a result of this ongoing housing crisis there is a parallel situation of increasing homelessness. People living in cars, in vans, in makeshift shelters in the bush, sleeping rough on the street. Sometimes entire families are living in precarious and unstable living situations.

These problems are complex and not simple to solve. However local councils have the potential to create or modify local laws to ease the housing and homeless crisis in our region. Particularly the laws which restrict people from living in tiny homes on land in which the land hosts are wanting to host struggling families and low income people that literally have nowhere else to go.

I urge you to use you good judgement and conscience as 'people's representatives' to move and make amendments to allow landowners to host and homeless and landless to have the structure and stability to be able to raise their families, work and contribute, rather than live in limbo, in 'no man's land'.

Even if this is a temporary change at the local level, it's better than no change at all and to just push people out of their homes, uproot and disturb their school life, work life and family life.

I trust that you will understand the urgency of giving tenants of tiny homes and multiple occupancy tenants some more stability in their chosen places of residence.

There are many examples across the world where countries, states and councils are faced with similar pressures and using creative and compassionate governance to find solutions that help those most in need, and by default, the wider community and society also.

Thanks for your time.

Email 2

To whom it may concern,

I have been living on Fleetwood Road for the past two years. I have known Ang Smit for this amount of time, who also lives on the road with her two boys.

When I found out last year that people on the road had complained about them being there, I was shocked. Ang, along with her neighbour, Judy, have established independent and beautiful homes to reside there and as far as I can tell, have become assets to the community in the street and also out in the Sunshine Coast community. Their presence living in this area is a positive not a negative.

In the current rental and housing crisis, it seems absolutely ludicrous that good people be asked to leave their homes and move on, when clearly they are doing zero harm to neighbours, land or wildlife and are building community by being there. Isn't Sunshine Coast council all about community building and support?? Let them stay!

I truly hope that these letters from people like me in the community are taken seriously. Laws can be changed to better serve us, the people. To my understanding, this is why there are councils in place, to improve the lives of all people living in this wonderful area of the Sunshine Coast.

As a resident of this road, I'm grateful to know that landlords like Jacqui are generously offering the land that they have to people who need a home. This is what I stand for. True community ethics.

Email 3

I am writing to you with a simple request to suspend the 'Establishment or Occupation of a Temporary Home' local law. Doing so you could make a huge difference to so many in our community.

I recently saw the following from a single mother of two young boys forced by the housing crisis into a tiny home. They have been moved on several times due to the Council's persistence with a local law that impacts so many in the community.

As a collective, we are experiencing a housing crisis, with many experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. In times like this community comes together to offer assistance in many forms, including the sharing of land for tiny homes, caravans and buses. Unfortunately, we have a local law that prohibits people from parking on land for more than 4 weeks per year. Many councils across the nation have either suspended the local law or extended the time period to actively assist in this crisis. Sunshine Coast Council have a simple process of suspending the local law if they wish to do so.

While the Sunshine Coast has increased its real estate values with the influx of people from southern states, renters have become the new homeless gypsies, many with children who often suffer most. The removal or suspension of the Temporary Home local law will allow children to have a stable home, maintain community support and connections, grow food and maintain a balanced anxiety-free life. Less than 7% of single mothers own their own home. This law further impacts this community of young single mothers (unable to work full-time or at all without another care-giver). Are we discriminating here?

My heart breaks when more women and children are forced to move to Agnes Waters, or out west, away from the Coast and their community. These people are the descendants of generations of people who make the Sunshine Coast culture what it is. The Sunshine Coast is known for its artists, musicians, creatives, natural therapies, organic food, natural healthy living, all of which makes this place so special and attractive as a holiday destination. Housing is a key part of maintaining these ‘fringe’ communities. Affordable housing for young people to fill jobs is also vital for our economy and more and more young people are consistently forced into van life to keep their jobs or leave the region entirely - this is a crisis. There are staff shortages because there is no where for young people to live nearby! 

This is a no brainer.

I hope to hear this is debated and acted on urgently and not left yet another couple of years to an election. This is a real emergency and requires urgent action now.

Email 4

We would like to support a growing need to suspend the local law for occupation or establishing a temporary home. The Sunshine Coast has witnessed a gradual deterioration in a long established sense of community, and we have lost so many community minded people to rising property values and rentals, and it feels like we could have done more sooner. We would like this trend to be arrested to prevent any further families, seniors (particularly women and single parent families in distress), and long established locals being forcibly uprooted and forced out of the region from their long established communities.

One of our greatest uphill battles is addressing social and public health, and mental health, and it is forever worsening due to inaction over fundamentals like the cost of living and primarily now the cost of housing due to unreal market forces. We would like to live in mobile Tiny Houses within our nominated communities of interest that we contribute to in terms of economic and social value, without feeling like we are breaking the law. We have been advocating for more sustainable community living values for over six years on the Sunshine Coast via six events from 2018 and nationally around Australia, and help supported the creation of the Maleny Community Centre’s Working Group on Housing Affordability & Homelessness.

Suspending this law would enable the many local people living on the knife edge about to pack up and leave our community, and create conditions for a living model that would create not only more affordable living, but though landsharing and sharing goods in small communities leading to better economic, environmental and social outcomes improving mental health, connection and wellness as well as leading to a more meaningful way to live. We would be proud to see the Sunshine Coast Council as being a proud leader in really taking care of the needs of all of its citizens like so many more councils - and now the entire state of NSW - are now doing to respond to clear and urgent community needs to relax the rules on temporary housing to alleviate the shock of escalating property values until better working solutions can be found.

Would welcome any opportunity to meet and discuss any of these ideas with you and help Council address one of our greatest current civic problems, as well as how to move into a viable future for more sustainable living.