Housing affordability stress is increasing in the Taree region, according to Samaritans' community services manager, Michelle Stocks, and "the solution has to be a whole of government approach, looking at increasing the stock of affordable housing, looking at other options ..."

Other options could include tiny homes as people look for solutions as they increasingly struggle to enter the real estate market, struggle to find affordable rental properties, and struggle to access social housing in the MidCoast Council area. Council is currently preparing a housing strategy to determine housing needs and appropriate zonings for different housing types.

This week Compass Housing Services, the social housing provider that manages properties in the Taree region, stated "the number of households eligible for social housing in NSW could be more than 261 per cent higher than waiting lists suggest", in its discussion paper, 'Estimating Current and Future Demand for Social Housing Assistance'.

"There are currently more than 48,000 households on the waiting list for social housing in NSW, the highest number of any State in Australia," said the paper's author Martin Kennedy.

"Income and asset data from the last census (2016) suggest that there are an additional 127,000 households eligible for social housing who have, as yet, chosen not to apply.

"If every household in NSW who met the eligibility criteria for social housing decided to apply, waiting lists across the country would increase by more than 261 per cent.

"The NSW government 'Future Directions for Social Housing' policy is the most ambitious of its kind, but still only proposes enough dwellings to house less than half the current waiting list over a 10 year period."

The Australian Human Rights Commission recently revealed women aged 55 years and over "was the fastest growing cohort of homeless Australians between 2011 and 2016, increasing by 31 per cent."

It predicts the "trend will continue given the ongoing shortage of affordable housing, the ageing population and the significant gap in wealth accumulation between men and women across their lifetimes."

In the Taree region, the Samaritans is the only provider of homelessness support services and Ms Stocks says "we have a lot of single women aged over 55 years on our books who we continue to support because they are very hard to house."

"To find affordable housing for someone who is on an aged pension, which would usually be a single person, there's just not the availability," Ms Stocks said.

Tiny homes are increasingly being considered as a possible solution to housing financially vulnerable women and men.

Designer Eco Tiny Homes is an Australian business that builds tiny homes and its prices for independent living models start from around $61,000 up to around $142,000. It has also built three tiny homes for the homeless in partnership with the Salvation Army, and is running a GoFund Me campaign to raise $40,000 to build another tiny home for the homeless.

Local architecture graduate and builder, Daniel Barry of Daniel Barry Building Design opened up his latest tiny home for inspection at The Secret Weekly Farmer's Market on September 5. It is the second he has built, and the tiny home is on the market for $37,500. His first tiny home generated significant community interest during Envirofair in 2018.

MidCoast Council is aware of the emerging tiny homes industry and Bruce Moore, council's manager of development assessment says "tiny homes could be considered as another type of housing."

"We are not aware of any applications for tiny homes in the MidCoast region at this point in time, and don't consider there are any barriers to tiny homes in our council area," Mr Moore said.

"In the MidCoast Council region we have a great diversity in housing types from traditional dwellings, dual occupancies, multi dwelling developments, seniors living developments, residential flat buildings and granny flats and so on. The different types of housing are available at various levels of affordability.

"Council's position on a 'tiny home village' would be the same as for residential development or a caravan park. If the tiny homes were caravans then the village would be considered a caravan park and assessed accordingly."

Mr Moore said the construction of tiny homes varies; with some tiny homes constructed on site - the same as a traditional house - some are constructed as homes off site and then transported to the site, and some are constructed as caravans.

"If the tiny homes were constructed off site and moved to the land the 'village' is likely to be assessed as a manufactured home estate. If the tiny homes are constructed on site then the 'village' would be considered as a multi dwelling development."

Mr Moore said the use or placement of a tiny home on any land for residential purposes would require development consent, however he added that tiny homes constructed on site may satisfy provisions for complying development and therefore not require separate development consent.

"The only exception would be a tiny home registered as a caravan. Under the Local Government (Manufactured Home Estates, Caravan Parks, Camping Grounds and Moveable Dwellings) Regulation 2005 approval is not required for the installation of not more than one caravan on land occupied by the owner of the caravan or campervan in connection with that owner's dwelling-house, so long as it is used for habitation only by the owner or by members of the owner's household and is maintained in a safe and healthy condition."

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