With the NSW Govern-ment spending $29 million a week in repairs and maintenance of its existing housing stock, it would make better sense to spend the money on new, more suitable homes.
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That’s according to Jamie Bell-Towers, managing director of the newly created Pemulwuy Housing Pty Ltd.
And the new group, named after the Aboriginal Rainbow Warrior, has suitable plans for that.
Mr Bell-Towers was speaking at the Pemul-wuy office at Mordek, Moruya, in the building where work was already underway on suitable metal frames for a range of plans for the project.
Mordek’s John Nader said he was waiting to hear confirmation of an order for 500 frames for houses in the Tamworth area.
Mr Nader said the plans prepared by architect Terry Ring were for one, two, three and four-bedroom homes. They were of modular design, but designed so that they would present 30 different street frontages. He said his factory already had two machines both capable of producing the frames for two complete houses a day, and there was plenty of room for more.
By Christmas, he said, it was possible there would be eight machines on the floor.
“This is something real,” Mr Nader said, “and it’s going to happen. We are capable of doing anything thrown at us.”
Mr Bell-Towers said that not only would the proposal provide indigenous and affordable housing, it would also provide long-term training and employment for indigenous people in building them.
“We will be training indigenous people here, and then they’ll go and train others so they’ll be able to build these houses themselves,” he said, adding the proposed homes would cost between $160,000 and $220,000.
Architect Terry Ring said the aim had been to make the designs aesthetically pleasing, sustainable and affordable. They were open plan, and wheelchair-friendly. They would be fire and shockproof.
“Each elevation will be slightly different,” he added, “so people driving past will see what seem to be different houses, though the designs will be the same.”
Legal advisor Scott Petterssen said an important aspect of the proposal was that tenants of the new houses would be able to look forward to eventual ownership. “Tenants who know they have a long term prospect will personalise their houses,” he said.
Bega State MP Andrew Constance, who is also Opposi-tion spokesperson for Ageing and Disability and Housing, said the Pemulwuy project would go a long way to meet an enormous housing challenge, one aspect of which was a waiting list of 8000 people in NSW wanting disabled living accommodation.
Opposition spokes-person for Financial Management and Housing Strategy Greg Pearce agreed with him.
“I’m very impressed,” he said, “I didn’t know you had this capacity here.”