Housing crisis: homes needed so badly council starts a charitable trust

It has stumped up $500,000 for a new housing trust as it tries to find ways to help stop the Castlemaine area ever experiencing "a situation like this again", Mount Alexander Shire mayor Cr Matthew Driscoll said.

The intervention comes as housing advocates paint a dire picture of Australia's housing crisis.

"The problems in our housing market are deep seated and there is no easy fix," Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council said in May.

She said housing affordability worsened no matter where they lived or how much they earned in 2023, and would likely get worse thanks to three consecutive years of housing shortfalls.

Castlemaine's council is helping kickstart a trust that would act as an independent charitable organisation, accepting donations of land and money that can be used for affordable housing.

Cr Driscoll said council had been looking at different ways to address the housing crisis in the region.

"We need to look at how we can support people who already work or live in the shire to have a home here, and one that's affordable," he said.

The council was among only a handful of local governments trying something as unique as an independent trust, Cr Driscoll said.

The City of Port Phillip formed a housing trust in 2005, and charitable trusts were found in Europe, the UK, US and Canada.

Fellow councillor Rosie Annear said charitable trusts were designed for "perpetuity" and could go beyond local government lease limitations of a maximum of 49 years.

"I hope it will help build that public confidence and provide that opportunities to accumulate assets to meet community needs over time," she said.

"The longevity of it is what's most exciting to me, that it's not just a spring to the finish line, that it can be something that keeps going."

Cr Annear said the functions of the trust would need to be clear enough to protect its intended purpose, to build houses, but flexible enough to adopt to changing circumstances and opportunities.

The next steps for the trust included creating an advisory committee of community members, which would work with council to help appoint a trustee, and to call for pledges of land and money.

The council would appoint the trustee, which would then take over the day to day operations of the trust.

- With Australian Associated Press