The forum, organised by the state member for Murray Helen Dalton, met at the Leagues Club for speeches and a roundtable discussion on solutions to the lack of housing in Griffith and the region as a whole.

Mrs Dalton said she was keen to get the group into a position to apply for state and federal funding to address the shortage.

“I’m wanting rezoning, and looking into the co-operative housing model. We want to get ourselves positioned for funding into housing and we need support services,” she said.

She emphasised the importance of social support services working alongside the initial housing, with the two issues irrevocably linked.

“If they’ve got nowhere to live, they can spiral. You can’t address problems like alcoholism, gambling addiction without that.”

“If we can get it right here, we can get people talking.”

The event’s keynote speaker was Brian Murnane, the CEO of Amelie Housing. Mr Murnane spoke about using funding from the NSW government to build several hundred units, but has aims to build more regionally.

“We built some of those units in Albury and 20 in Dubbo, but we’d like to do more regionally.”

He emphasised that the housing crisis wasn’t just impacting young people and seasonal workers, but often seniors trying to move out of homes that become too large or unaffordable when kids leave to pursue their own homes.

“The other thing is the Sydney market really spiralled, and then with COVID, people realised they can live in the regions so that’s even more demand … if we build social housing, it takes pressure off the private market and even the public housing market.”

Annette Baker spoke about her own living conditions, noting the mould on the ceilings and the roof leaking whenever it rains. While she has tried to find alternatives, she’s seen no progress.

“I’ve had enough of where I am … you need a proper house.”

Fortunately, Ms Baker connected with Argyle Housing while at the forum and in a triumph of networking, was able to secure herself a new place that will be ready in the next few weeks.

While the initial small success hopefully bodes well for the forum’s next steps, many said that the issue was not going to be solved overnight.

Issues of overcrowding were discussed, with a general conclusion that while safety may be at risk and laws broken, it was impossible and unethical to prosecute or push back on due to the lack of options if any were removed from the houses.

Peta Dummett, the co-ordinator of the Griffith community centre, said that she wanted to ensure conditions were kept up to scratch after hearing horror stories from those in the centre.

“It’s a wonderful initiative, it’s the first step in moving forward … We get people visiting the centre talking about conditions – it’s quite distressing,” she explained.

“Australia used to be a nation that cared about the community and the people in it, now it’s more concerned with the economic state.”

“For me, it should be about making state and federal governments accountable.”