Leading into SIITR24 we were very conscious of accommodation availability. Not only because it’s limited in the 2024 host community, Kempsey and the broader Local Government Area, the Macleay Valley, also because several of the local motels are relied on for crisis accommodation.
By July we noticed most motels indicated lack of availability and as we really wanted to ensure there were as many accommodation options within the host community as possible we reached out to the local Rotary Clubs to support our billeting drive.
If billeting is an unusual concept for you it’s simply about sharing living space. It’s also a great opportunity to share ideas, connections and who knows what can come from that. Despite the hearty attempts of Kempsey West Rotary Club’s Judy (thank you again Judy) the take up just didn’t happen to the scale we’d hoped.
And the reasons are valid, we’ve heard it all before and it’s certainly not a Rotary thing!
- People need their spare rooms
- Someone might come and visit
- The hosts have a busy and unpredictable schedule
- Illness in the household
- They may be away for part of the conference
Or, if you scratch the surface a little
- People don’t want to be inconvenienced
- They may be just a little afraid
- It all sounds too hard
Yet, there were two fabulous people who took up the opportunity and they had wonderful experiences.
So the challenge is out to the next host community to top this – we will be inviting you to.
In the end we lost around 54 nights of accommodation to the larger local government area just to the South (around $18k visitor spend).
Sharing accommodation of course isn’t a perfect solution however it is a simple way to address at least part of the housing crisis. No, it’s not for everyone however for those who can embrace it the benefits are immense from saving a lot of money on bills, contributing to mortgages and rent through to company and help around the house.
Did you know there are over 13 million empty bedrooms across Australia? Imagine if even 5% of these rooms were filled.
Our Spaces is a short film which was co-produced by SIITR Founder, Kerry Grace while in her role at Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast.
During the making of the film Kerry forged a partnership with Flatmates.com which continues to this day. Flatmates recent sign ups show a 20% increase of signups among landlords who are over 50 years of age. Promising.
#SIITR24 also covered affordable housing as one of the conference streams. It was discussed both in a workshop and also via a fireside chat on Day 2. Already a new housing alliance has formed in host community Kempsey post conference and the housing speakers from SIITR will meet next week to put forward further ideas for the #SIITR24 White Paper.
If you’d like to contribute to the affordable housing conversation please get in touch.
