Church Land Touts Solution for Wagga Wagga Homelessness Crisis

Church land is being touted as a potential solution to the homelessness crisis in Wagga Wagga, following the death of a newborn baby in a tent almost three weeks ago.

The baby died during childbirth.

Community leaders say despite the NSW government's establishment of a taskforce in the wake of the tragedy, and a commitment to get people into permanent housing, more urgent action is needed.

"It's fantastic a taskforce has been formed, but we know sometimes the rhetoric around what the government is proposing and how it lands on the ground can be two different things," said Vicky Burkinshaw from the Wagga Women's Health Centre.

Ms Burkinshaw said churches and faith-based communities could be part of a more immediate solution, with many churches owning extensive land plots.

"We really feel that this is a community crisis that needs a community response," she said.

Support beyond food

The CEO of Faith Housing Australia, an organisation that supports faith-based organisations to address housing gaps, said it was an opportunity for Wagga's faith-based groups to go beyond providing food and support.

"Faith-based groups deeply care about their communities. That's their whole reason for being," Amanda Bailey said.

"Maybe they've been running a food pantry for many years, and now they're saying the need in our community is going beyond food."

Ms Bailey said some groups in Wagga had already expressed interest in using their land for housing, but the process could be costly and time-consuming.

"When you're thinking about faith-based land, many places of worship are zoned as infrastructure, which means residential housing is not immediately permissible,"

"For most of these groups, while they have significant assets, they may not have the capability or the funds to go through an expensive planning proposal process."

Ms Bailey said the planning process to rezone land from infrastructure to residential cost an average of up to $150,000 and could take nine to 12 months to be approved.

The Wagga Wagga City Council has previously indicated it would be willing to work with the NSW government to try to find solutions for the homelessness crisis in the city, but declined to comment specifically on whether it would consider fast-tracking any sort of re-zoning process.

It is also a part of a taskforce set up to address the issue, following the newborn's death.

A church that made it happen

A senior minister with Shoalhaven-based church group Salt Ministries said Wagga's homelessness crisis felt all too familiar.

Eight years ago, Peter Dover banded together with other church leaders to identify underutilised land for social housing in Nowra.

He said while many doubted the project, and feared council planning regulations would get in the way, the church managed to establish an emergency shelter in a council-owned building where rough sleepers could find a warm bed, a hot meal and appropriate support services.

"Everyone said it would take us two years to get it going. We got it up and running within four to six weeks," Mr Dover said

"We weren't saying to council, you've got a problem, you solve it."

Mr Dover said getting everyone on the same page was vital in creating one of the region's primary providers of homeless services, Salt Care.

"It doesn't work by blaming this and blaming that," he said.

"It's about us coming together and putting those differences aside and going, 'we can do this'."

The church also rents out 40 homes to homeless people, to ensure long-term housing security.

Some homes are owned by the church while others are leased by the church and subleased to those in need.

Minister open to faith-based housing

Minister for Homelessness Rose Jackson said the NSW government was open to exploring opportunities for utilising faith-based land.

"If people have land where they'd be happy for modular or tiny homes to be located, we really encourage them to get in touch with that local working group,"

"We can look at our own land too."

Ms Jackson said Faith Housing Australia's concerns regarding red tape and costs around rezoning were "a fair point" and something she was looking into.

Mr Dover said churches, all levels of government and the community needed to work together and look at the bigger picture if solutions were to be found.

"We need to realise that homelessness isn't a homeless person's problem, it's a community problem,"

"This isn't just about getting houses approved, it's about humanity."