“We realised in about November of 2020 that we were no longer just dealing with housing stress, we were dealing with a housing crisis.”
In the lush foothills of the NSW Mid North Coast, the town of Bellingen is best known for its bucolic beauty, vibrant community and progressive spirit. But behind the postcard-perfect views lies a crisis all too familiar across regional Australia: the steady erosion of affordable housing and the social dislocation that follows in its wake.
While many communities continue to watch in frustration as property prices climb and rental availability plummets, Bellingen is doing something different. Boldly different.
Since 2017, the Bellingen Housing Matters Action Group (HMAG) has been redefining what local activism can achieve. What began as a concerned coalition of residents has grown into a structured, sophisticated organisation taking on some of the thorniest aspects of Australia’s housing crisis – from elder homelessness and regional health infrastructure to the future of sustainable home ownership.
This is the story of Watson Place, Homes for Health, and the region’s first Community Land Trust – a three-pronged model for how place-based, people-led housing action might just be the solution regional Australia has been waiting for.
A Place to Call Home: Watson Place and Housing for Older Women
It began with a growing unease. In 2017, as housing costs crept upward and renters were squeezed out, HMAG’s founders noticed an alarming trend: older, single women – long-time carers, mothers, volunteers – were retiring into homelessness.
A 2018 forum hosted by the then nascent group confirmed what data had already begun to suggest: women over 55 were among the fastest-growing cohorts at risk of housing insecurity. Their lives had been dedicated to supporting others, yet they now faced the prospect of living in their cars or being forced to leave the community they helped build.
“After that first forum, we did a deep dive into local housing data and what emerged was a really clear picture – these women were invisible but highly vulnerable,” says Rose West, HMAG’s coordinator. “It was often by chance, sickness or separation that they found themselves in really precarious situations.”
Enter Watson Place. Located on the site of a former Royal Freemasons’ Benevolent Institution (RFBI) aged care facility, this 23-unit affordable housing complex is specifically designed for older women at risk of homelessness. The transformation from mothballed institution to a vibrant residential hub didn’t happen overnight – it took years of “quiet advocacy”, coalition-building, and persistent behind-the-scenes work to persuade all levels of government to support what would become a $10 million redevelopment project (the RFBI donated the land, and the NSW and Commonwealth governments each paid $5 million to cover its construction).
“It’s about bringing everyone to the table, even if they’re not natural allies,” West explains. “We were able to unite local, state and federal representatives around this because the need was so clear and the solution was constructive.”
While affordable housing differs from social housing – rents at Watson Place are benchmarked to around 75–80% of market rates ($245/week on opening in December 2024), not permanently capped – the stability it offers is profound.
Such is the case for 81-year-old Maggie Hamill, who has been living out of her van for the past decade. “You think, wouldn’t it be nice if I had my own bed somewhere. That I could just go to without pre-booking, without checking that everything’s OK… It’s mine and I’m a happy little vegemite.”
So, too, is lifelong Bellingen resident, Barbara Phillips, 62, who works as a postie in the heart of town. “I lost my partner after 25 years, moved in with my sister for a while and I’m just grateful I have a great group of friends who have taken me in and looked after me. And now getting this is just a dream come true. It’s so much more than I ever expected.”
“This is their forever home,” says West of the fully-furnished, 1-bedroom apartments located a 5-minute walk from the town’s main street. “And I can confidently say we managed to house the women who were most at risk.”
What’s more, says West, it could be replicated across the country.
“Every small community that I know of around regional NSW has some sort of disused bank or old facility that could potentially be retrofitted. You just need someone to bring it all together.”
Healing Homes: The Homes for Health Initiative
Bellingen’s housing issues don’t just affect the elderly. In recent years, the local hospital network – Bellinger River District Hospital and Dorrigo Health Campus – has faced critical staff shortages, in part because healthcare workers can’t find anywhere to live.
This is where HMAG’s adaptive spirit shines.
In partnership with Bellinger Health Action Group and brokered by Bellingen Shire Council Mayor Steve Allan, HMAG helped relaunch an earlier initiative – Community Hosting – but with a specific focus on healthcare workers. The idea was simple: appeal directly to locals to open up spare rooms, studios or even Airbnb listings to provide temporary, low-cost accommodation to critical workers.
The response was extraordinary. Sixty-five offers came in from across the shire, and more than 20 properties were vetted and approved. While the initial stream of healthcare workers has been modest, the model’s potential is clear. Most significantly, the program helped unlock a major outcome: the reopening of two hospital wings, including the 14-bed medical ward, Hartley House, in Bellingen, after housing availability was removed as a staffing barrier.
“Homes for Health has proven what we already suspected,” says West. “That if you ask communities to step up for something they care deeply about – like keeping their hospital open – they will.”
The next phase will see the program broaden to include a wider cohort of key workers. It’s hyperlocal problem-solving with systemic implications: if a shortage of nurses can close a hospital, then community-supported housing can help keep it open.
A Radical Reimagining: The Community Land Trust
If Watson Place was HMAG’s first big win, and Homes for Health its most responsive, the Community Land Trust (CLT) is its most ambitious. And potentially, its most transformative.
Inspired by international models and tailored to Bellingen’s unique character, the Waterfall Way CLT aims to decouple land ownership from housing ownership – a “second-generation” response to the failings of both market-driven development and aging communal housing experiments like multiple occupancies (MOs).
“CLTs are about keeping land in community hands, in perpetuity,” West explains. “The homes might be owned, but the land stays in trust. That way, housing remains affordable forever.”
Working with Bellingen Shire Council and backed by philanthropic funding from the Siddle Family Foundation, HMAG has identified a pilot site in the seaside township of Urunga (a 15-minute drive from Bellingen). A council-owned parcel of land on Ferry Street – currently under feasibility assessment – could soon become the Shire’s first demonstration of the model.
Two approaches are being trialled: one allows eligible residents to self-finance and build their own dwellings on CLT-held land; the other sees purpose-driven developers construct medium-density townhouses sold at capped, below-market prices. In both cases, resale restrictions and equity formulas ensure long-term affordability without the risk of speculative inflation.
“It’s not about capital gains,” says West. “It’s about security, sustainability and place-based living. We’re not building communes – you don’t have to love your neighbour. This could be a street in any suburb. It just happens to be part-owned by the community.”
It’s a vision that appeals not just to social idealists but to pragmatists. As housing becomes increasingly out of reach – even for dual-income families – West believes the “missing middle” is the demographic most likely to benefit from this model: local workers on local wages who are priced out but still earn too much to qualify for government assistance.
“They’ve done everything right. But they’re being locked out. And until now, there’s been nothing for them,” she says.
Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast CEO and Director, Dr Madeleine Lawler, agrees: “Bellingen is the leader of the league table in a region collectively in housing crisis. Forty-two per cent of renters across the Mid North Coast are in rental stress at this point, but the situation in Bellingen is acute. It’s now a place that is affordable to the professional classes only and attracts people from all over Australia; years ago it became unaffordable to those who were already there.”
Local father of two, Dan Mumford, rents a granny flat for $350 a week but will need to move in the next 6–12 months because his children have outgrown the space. “It’s already too small, but the jump from what I’m paying now to $700, or maybe $600 if I’m lucky, is significant. I remember when I first rented in Bellingen 10 years ago, I got a four-bedroom house for $300. There’s no way that’s ever going to happen again.”
Bellingen Shire Council General Manager, Mark Griffioen, reinforces the point: “The town is quickly becoming unaffordable for everyday people, and services and businesses across the board will suffer. It’s not just a crisis, it’s a disaster we are facing.”
Gumbaynggirr elder, Uncle Cecil Briggs, agrees. “We ain’t seen nothing yet. Honestly, it’s all about money today, and not about humans.”
Little wonder, then, that with this groundswell of collective will pulsing through the community, the CLT is no longer just an idea – it’s becoming a reality, rooted and rising. Public information sessions are drawing interest from potential residents, and HMAG is working to build a pipeline of supporters, future homeowners and, crucially, additional funders.
“We’re backed by one incredibly progressive philanthropic organisation, but the vision goes beyond that,” says West. “We’re hoping to build a revolving fund, attract more investment, and replicate this model across other rural communities.”
A Model for the Nation?
In a political climate where housing is often handballed between tiers of government – too expensive for councils, too local for states, too small-scale for federal intervention – HMAG’s work stands as a blueprint for grassroots, place-led innovation.
Its strength lies not just in what it has helped build – Watson Place, Homes for Health, the Waterfall Way CLT – but how it has built it. Slowly, strategically, in partnership with other key players and always with an eye on what the community actually needs.
“Everything we do is driven by local energy,” says West. “The only projects that happen are the ones people want to drive. We don’t admire the problem – we work on the solution.”
And yet, even as it celebrates significant milestones, HMAG is preparing to pause, reflect and recalibrate. Over the next few months it will be asking the community what the next round of priorities should be.
Because what HMAG proves, more than anything else, is that housing – like health, like community – is too important to leave to chance.
It takes people. It takes place. And it takes courage.
Find out more about the Waterfall Way CLT.
Article by Liz Ginis, Communications and Marketing Manager RDA Sydney
Images/footage courtesy Bellingen Housing Matters Action Group
