How can community-led housing models address housing shortages in small towns?
This case study is one of a series looking at how the shift to renewable energy can enable improved housing outcomes for regional communities. It showcases examples of innovative workforce accommodation and legacy housing initiatives from across Australia.
Housing legacy: A community-driven housing model, created by local organisations, that aims to address long-term housing shortages in small towns in the Wimmera.
The Wimmera Housing Innovations model is a community-driven housing pathway designed and governed locally, where every decision from site selection to financing is made with community purpose at its core.
Each town establishes its own Special Purpose Vehicle to lead local housing delivery. These entities make sure housing projects are owned, managed and controlled by the community itself, supported by councils and Wimmera Southern Mallee Development.
The model welcomes participation from a range of local partners including community investors, employers, and industry participants such as renewable energy and transmission companies. Participation is always on the community’s terms and focused on delivering solutions for the community.
LOCAL CONTEXT
Many small towns in the Wimmera Southern Mallee region have low rental availability and broader housing options are limited. The region faces challenges with ageing homes, limited builders, and a lack of fit-for-purpose housing for residents and essential workers.
There are a number of proposed major renewable energy, transmission and mineral extraction projects in the region, which will add temporary workforce demand. This will create further strain on accommodation in local towns – unless housing solutions are planned with the community.
CHALLENGES THE PROJECT IS SEEKING TO ADDRESS
The region is expected to host large numbers of temporary workers in coming years, and while housing options such as workers camps’ might provide a short-term solution, they won’t help to resolve long-term housing issues. Communities want a solution that will deliver locally appropriate, long-term housing.
This is about communities solving community problems. Everyone, from residents to regional businesses, can play a part, but no one partner defines the story.
Chris Sounness, Chief Executive Officer, Wimmera Southern Mallee Development
WHAT HAPPENED
Wimmera Southern Mallee Development is an economic development organisation, established to guide the region’s economic, cultural, social and environmental opportunities. For this project, they act as the regional convenor for community-led housing delivery at small-town scale.
Multiple partners play an important role in project delivery:
- Wimmera Housing Innovations, a private for-profit company, establishes and supports Special Purpose Vehicles in each town and provides feasibility, procurement, governance and delivery support.
- Town Progress Associations hold local decision-making and own or control sites.
- Councils enable planning, land assembly and connections.
- Employers and community investors inform housing demand and provide capital.
- Wimmera Affordable Housing Limited, a proposed non-for profit, is the identified pathway when partners prefer community housing ownership.
- Transmission and renewable energy companies co-invest in community housing assets across several towns, rather than standalone camps.
This initiative has led to a replicable legacy housing model, which redirects at least some workers’ accommodation construction demand into permanent community assets. Using this model, the program has established four town Special Purpose Vehicles and secured serviced sites, with a pipeline of 13 homes across the four towns of Murtoa, Minyip, Donald and Apsley. The first housing is due for delivery in 2026.
More information on next steps for the program can be found here.
KEY BENEFITS THE PROJECT SEEKS TO DELIVER
- Creates housing that meets local needs and stays in community hands
- Builds local capacity through shared governance and ownership
- Replaces short-term fixes with long-term community assets
- Provides a model that any town, with or without major projects nearby, can adopt
LEARNINGS FOR BROADER APPLICATION
A guiding principle is to ensure workforce accommodation is developed as legacy housing. This means:
- Upfront planning to design buildings that can be retained or relocated within the town.
- Placing assets on serviced lots so connections serve residents beyond the construction period.
- Finding the housing type that works for the community first, along with the investing company.
- Avoiding new sites and the need for new service connections where possible.
For the Wimmera Southern Mallee project, this meant housing could be modular (helping to manage building scarcity and delivery risk) or built on site – but all housing must meet a 7-star standard for permanent residences and be able to be converted to permanent rental dwellings.
It was also important that the temporary workforce housing was tied to a handover plan to move the homes into the local rental pool when project construction winds down. This included having a plan for how the assets would be owned and managed.
Wimmera Southern Mallee Development has established the following template for community stakeholders and companies to work together:
- Start early. Convene a meeting between the council, the regional delivery partner, the town Special Purpose Vehicle and the company to agree aims and constraints.
- Select sites with the community. Use serviced lots close to existing services.
- Agree on the investment structure. Seek co-investment rather than donations. This way, company funds flow into dwellings and connections that become community assets.
- Define dual use. Specify the share of time used for workforce and the handover date or trigger into long-term rental.
- Lock operational settings. Set simple tenant and asset policies, rent settings, maintenance responsibilities and an owner of last resort.
- Fund connections once. Ensure water, sewer, power and roads are built to permanent standards.
- Require a delivery dashboard. Publish sites, timelines, costs, tenanting and basic running-cost data so progress is visible.
- Write the handover. Include decommissioning requirements for any temporary structures and the title or lease transfer into the community vehicle.
Ensuring clear governance and finance arrangements upfront means project delivery will be smoother.
Financial approaches can include blending public co-investment (most useful for utility connections), community equity and employer support. Management approaches can include using town Special Purpose Vehicles for market delivery and an identified agency for not-for-profit ownership when required. Importantly, Special Purpose Vehicles with clear constitutions play an important role in keeping decision-making local.
Housing delivery should align with council planning and housing priorities, and use transparent reporting and a public commitments register, so communities can track what has been promised and delivered.
Read more examples of innovative workforce accommodation and legacy housing initiatives in the shift to renewable energy in our full report.
Banner image: Housing construction, VIC. (Image credit: CMC Steel Solutions)