![An aerial view of Raymond Terrace, which will be one of the key centres addressed in the Port Stephens Housing Forum. An aerial view of Raymond Terrace, which will be one of the key centres addressed in the Port Stephens Housing Forum.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/33FVAk7YxZ786YcQSXi4WkS/73a2426e-9890-471f-85be-ee28a5335526.jpg/r0_24_640_408_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Solutions to increase affordable housing in the region will be one of the key issues Port Stephens deputy mayor Leah Anderson hopes to see come from a Housing Forum at Medowie.
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The forum of Friday, which will include key Key stakeholders from different sectors and community, has been called in the light of government predictions of 20,000 more people calling Port home in the next 20 years.
That will require an additional 11,000 new dwellings or 4000 more than what had been forecast in the current local housing strategy.
"I think it's going to be an incredibly exciting concept of putting developers and real estate agents in the same room with community and environmental groups," Cr Anderson said.
"But it is exactly what we need to do. Unless we get a perspective of where each of us are coming from in delivering the homes needed then we will get nowhere. I believe we can find sensible, workable solutions together.
"We are going to have real estate agents and developers invited as well as the average person, the older person who doesn't want to see high rise. We're all going to be in the same room talking.
"It's going to be interesting. When people understand what the crisis is and you are asking them all for a solution, they've got to start looking at town centres and strategic planning and having different types of discussions than we've had over the last 10, 15, 20 years.
"We're bringing the community in on this, we're not just making decisions ourselves and going to the developers saying 'this is where you can develop'. The community gets a say."
![Port Stephens deputy mayor Cr Leah Anderson. Port Stephens deputy mayor Cr Leah Anderson.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/33FVAk7YxZ786YcQSXi4WkS/5c461192-24b0-4b0f-8794-841cac4a115c.jpg/r0_84_904_592_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Cr Anderson said the primary issue was finding space for an extra 4000 homes on what had already been planned in council's current strategic plan for the next 20 years.
"The primary issue is an extra 20,000 people over 20 years. To accommodate 20,000 people we need to deliver 11,000 homes but our strategic plan currently is only 7000," she said.
"We've got a shortfall already of 4000 homes on top the current housing crisis where we don't have enough homes.
"Where are we going to put another 4000 dwellings."
Another key issue will be affordable housing, with a large shortfall already in the region of rental properties for low income families and individual.
"The state government introduced a mandate for bigger developments of $70 million plus than 20 to 30 per cent has to go to affordable housing," Cr Anderson said.
"But we don't have any development of that scale, our developments might be $30 million for the massive big one in Nelson Bay, but we're nowhere near the mandate that says developers have to bring in affordable housing.
"Again as part of Friday's conversation we are going to be really pushing that. We need to ask how can we advocate to the government that we are going to need more socially affordable housing for the likes of Hume Housing."
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