9 Jul 2024

Searching for housing solutions

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the lack of appropriate housing is a hot ticket item to anyone who has a pulse in the Huon Valley!

As a measure of the interest in solving some of these intransigent issues, around 30 people attended the meeting organised by Circular Economy Huon (CEH) on Tuesday evening July 9 at the Huon Valley Hub. It included several ‘building professionals’ -  a house designer, architect and thermal performance expert.

The meeting started with a review of the sustainability factors associated with the four dwellings visited as part of the Sustainability Tour organised by CEH in June. We then heard from council Climate Change Officer, Malcolm Johnson about the risks now, and increasingly in the future, from continuous sea level rise and more bush fires. 

There was discussion about the opportunity provided by living in Tiny Homes and the challenges associated with them in terms of planning and building requirements.

The particular interests, concerns and issues of those attending were recorded. This included a diverse range of things such as: strata title developments, retrofitting, best use of different building materials, and how to be legal without spending more on gaining permissions than the building is worth!

These topics will be now be investigated through an on-line survey of those who attended before deciding at the next gathering, in 4-6 weeks, about how best to try to resolve them.

If you were unable to attend the meeting but interested in joining this housing initiative please contact the group – circulareconomyhuon@gmail.com . You’ll be most welcome.

This is about self-help through working collaboratively to solve community wide challenges.