SCU conference tackles North Coast housing challenges

SOUTHERN Cross University will mark the third anniversary of the 2022 floods by hosting a conference on February 28 to explore community-driven solutions to North Coast housing.

The event, titled Land, Sharing and the Law: Innovative solutions to the housing crisis, will examine the region’s history of land sharing and the lessons it offers.

While much of the disaster response has focused on emergency accommodation, property buybacks, infrastructure repairs, and flood mitigation, affordable housing and homelessness remain critical issues that have yet to be significantly addressed.

The conference will bring together thinkers, decision-makers, and innovators to promote community-led solutions.

Dean of law, Southern Cross University Professor David Heilpern said the nation was in the grip of a housing crisis.

“But here on the North Coast in the aftermath of Australia’s worst-recorded flood, the word ‘crisis’ does not adequately describe the desperation felt by many,” Heilpern said.

“The Law discipline at Southern Cross University has been considering ways of keeping the discussion positive and creative, and a collaboration of academics has reflected on the innovative strengths coming out of the North Coast, particularly since the Aquarius Festival of the 1970s.

“The region is Australia’s hub for land sharing: from the communes of the 1970s to strata in the 1980s and community title from the 1990s.

“Building on this legacy, Law at Southern Cross University is organising this conference, notably on the flood anniversary, to share knowledge and innovation in the face of this disaster and a changing climate.

“What can we learn from the past? How are we dealing with the present? And how can land sharing be developed in the future?”

Minister for Mental Health, Housing, Homelessness, Youth, Water and the North Coast Rose Jackson will deliver the keynote address.

Special ticket rates are available for groups, concession holders, and virtual attendees. More information about the event, including bookings, is available on Southern Cross University’s website.