Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has announce a $18.5 million Fortitude Valley housing project with Brisbane Housing Company (BHC) to help Brisbane’s homeless.
Brisbane City Council owns the Constance Street site and invited BHC onto a 1200 square metre portion of the site to provide a landmark development tackling affordable housing.
The building will feature 80 units with two levels of commercial space, earmarked for community groups who provide support services to the homeless.
The Lord Mayor (pictued above in front of a drawing of the project) said the development would be located next to council’s Green Square office headquarters, developed by Leighton.
“Council is tackling the issues of affordable housing and homelessness on a number of fronts. Working with developers and housing providers to encourage more affordable housing is an important part of that approach,” he said.
“And the problem of affordable housing is growing. Take the West End, which because of the chronic lack of supply, recorded the highest annual increase in weekly rental prices of about 40 per cent to $460 according to RP Data.”
Cr Newman said BHC could get access to council’s Affordable Housing Incentive Package and Housing Affordability Fund Infrastructure Charges Reduction Scheme schemes that could provide up to 87 per cent off infrastructure charges.
“Discounts off infrastructure charges can be significant savings, which is why we already offer a 35 per cent discount to developers to encourage the supply of new homes, and offer more again to non-profit agencies and providers of social and affordable housing,” he said.
“This development will provide Brisbane’s homeless with both good quality units and vital support services located inside the same building to help them back onto their feet.”
Brisbane City Council has provided Brisbane Housing Company with more than $14 million over six years.
