Bundjalung Elder Mick Roberts spoke to a small crowd this morning, gathered outside a building on Laurel Avenue in the hospital precinct.

Uncle Mick spoke briefly of his grandfather who grew up near by and of the need for everyone to have a safe place to lay their head as part of his Welcome to Country which began the official opening of the building now renovated as social housing.

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin’s strategic advocacy has delivered 12 extra social housing units for the city as part of a package of developments being managed by North Coast Community Housing (NCCH).

Ms Saffin told the Lismore App and other attendees at today’s opening,

“We talk about housing every week in parliament.”

“When I spoke to parliament last week I said, if we can’t work to provide secure housing for people, we might as well pack up and go home,” Ms Saffin said.

Bundjalung Elder Mick Roberts and NCCH Chair Robyn Hordern outside Laurel Lodge

Also present was Member of the NSW Legislative Council, Ben Franklin, who publicly thanked and acknowledged Janelle Saffin for her involvement in making the project come to fruition and said “it’s a good day” in the life of a politician to be part of a process such as this.

“We’ll work together to make sure the community has enough social and community housing,” Mr Franklin said.

John McKenna, CEO of NCCH, told the Lismore App some alarming figures in regards to waiting lists to move into such housing.

“The average wait time in the Lismore area would be five to 10 years,” Mr McKenna said.

“There would be 350 to 400 on the waiting list,” he added.

“That doesn’t mean that everyone waits that long. It depends on the level of priority. For example, a single parent would get priority,” he explained.

Ms Saffin said she was delighted that her idea of transferring Laurel Lodge – former Lismore Base Hospital accommodation – to the Department of Communities and Justice, had been taken up by the NSW Government.

“I saw this opportunity straight away when the 12-unit complex became surplus to NSW Health’s needs and immediately began lobbying the relevant Ministers – Brad Hazzard (Health), Melinda Pavey (Property & Housing) and Gareth Ward (then Families & Communities),” Ms Saffin said.

 “I was pleased to see my colleague Ben Franklin MLC supporting what I set in train months ago. Now that it has come to fruition, NCCH has spent almost $700,000 on refurbishing the units and they will be tenanted before Christmas.”

Ms Saffin said she had worked closely with NCCH CEO John McKenna and other housing providers to lobby State and Federal governments to invest more funding in new affordable and social housing developments across the region.

 “The message I have been repeating is that the more people we can house, the better for our society, and the better for our local and regional economies,” Ms Saffin said.

Inspecting Unit 1 of Laurel Lodge are, from left, Lismore Mayor Cr Vanessa Ekins, North Coast Community Housing Chair Robyn Hordern, Ben Franklin MLC, State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin and NCCH CEO John McKenna.

Ms Saffin also commended NCCH on its 30-unit development in McKenzie Street, Lismore, with the organisation contributing $6.5 million and securing $2 million under the NSW Government’s Community Housing Infrastructure Fund (CHIF).

The 20 x 2-bedroom units and 10 x 1-bedroom units will be a mixed tenure development, including homes for purchase, together with affordable and social housing.

Construction on the McKenzie Street development is expected to start in March 2022.