IN THE 19th and 20th centuries it was quite common for people to take in “lodgers” in their homes for a little extra income. Lodgers would have meals provided and could use the bathroom but that was all. If you did this on a grander scale, it became a boarding house, usually run by a mature woman.
Boarding houses were very common in some areas, and were usually inhabited by single men.
After largely disappearing in the late 20th century, it appears Sydney’s housing affordability crisis has sparked a re-emergence of them.
Two have already been approved in the Hawkesbury – a 25-room one in the old Speedo factory on Mileham Street, Windsor, approved in 2013, and a three-storey, 22-room one with manager’s room in George Street, Windsor, two doors up from the Railway Hotel, approved last year.
Now three more development applications for more ‘boarding houses’ are before Hawkesbury Council, though the term ‘boarding house’ seems to cover a wide range of proposals.
The first is a 10-room boarding house with manager’s residence on Windsor Street, Richmond, behind the old two-storey brick residence next to the post office. The proposal has been with Council for a couple of years, being scaled back from an original proposal of 16 rooms.
The second is an application by Anglicare to convert the former Windsor Fire Station into 19 self-contained rooms for people of low-income who are over 60. Councillor Barry Calvert said Anglicare indicated the ‘boarders’ would be elderly women.
While boarding houses in the past usually had a shared kitchen and bathroom and a proprietor or manager on site, the rooms in this development are basically ‘bedsits’, having their own kitchenette and bathroom, with none bigger than 25m2. There is also a shared communal area. There is no manager on site as one is only required if there are 20 or more lodgers on the site.
Council staff had recommended the DA be refused as it only proposed two parking spots and that a proposal of that size should have 10 spots.
The DA was brought before councillors this week, who deferred the decision to have further talks with Anglicare regarding the parking.
Cr Calvert said he was “gobsmacked” at Council’s reaction to the DA. “It’s a part of the whole process we’re trying to do,” he said, referring to Council’s policy to try to enable more affordable housing to be provided in the Hawkesbury.
He also said the proposal was to be run by Anglicare who “know how to run these things”.
The third boarding house proposal is a $1.6m plan for 140-142 March Street, Richmond, requiring demolition of the red-brick house on one of the blocks.
The proposed two-storey building has 27 rooms, and a manager’s residence behind the reception area, like a motel. The owner intends to operate the facility. According to the DA he owns and operates several motels across Sydney.
Each room is only 14m2 with a bed, a desk and a wardrobe. There are male and female communal bathrooms and the kitchen is shared. Six parking spaces are proposed. The applicant is Raymond Developers, with a Castle Hill address.
The submission said the development was intended primarily for short-term lodgers attending events in the area or visiting relatives at nursing homes or John Morony jail, as well as RAAF personnel needing short-term accommodation.
The NSW Office of Fair Trading’s information on boarding houses says a boarding house resident does not have the same control over the premises as a tenant does. “Often a resident of a boarding house only has a right to occupy a room and to share other facilities such as a kitchen and bathroom,” it says.
Council’s director of city planning Matt Owens said there’d been a steady decline in housing for families and individuals on low to medium incomes, and that government social housing has also declined in our area, even more than in surrounding areas.
He said the state government’s affordable housing policy allows boarding houses “within a number of Council’s commercial and residential zones” while our own local plan also allows boarding houses in some rural zones.
The state rules control such elements as room sizes, overshadowing, open space, management, facilities and parking. Generally, boarding houses must be close to public transport and commercial areas.
Cr Calvert said he and the mayor and councillors Garrow and Richards have formed a subcommittee and are looking at affordable housing ideas, and will conduct a forum on the issue later in the year.
He said one of the things they were looking at was educating the community about the sorts of people who need affordable housing – such as the large percentage of middle-aged or elderly women who have got divorced and can no longer afford housing.
“We have to educate people that these people don’t have two heads,” he said in frustration.
Another idea was to require developers to provide a certain percentage of lower-priced units in all new blocks, and shared equity purchases, where for example a young couple pays for three quarters of a home, which they live in, and an investor pays for the last quarter. The investor cannot make the couple sell it, but when they do, the investor gets a quarter of the sale price.