Protective Mechanisms Overview

The resources and guidance in the Affordable Housing National Leading Practice Guide and Tool Kit is not designed to be relied upon. Users of the guide should consider the individual circumstances of each project or policy, use other resources and take independent advice.

Introduction to protective mechanisms

Protective affordable housing policies keep low-cost accommodation within an area or mitigate its loss. Such policies can be site-specific or target incremental changes that cumulatively reduce the availability of particular housing types.

Many areas retain important supplies of affordable accommodation, such as low-cost rental flats, boarding houses, hotel accommodation, shop top apartments and caravan parks. This housing may be threatened by redevelopment to accommodate new population growth or to upgrade decaying residential areas. In non-metropolitan areas, low-cost rental housing and residential parks are often attractive development sites for higher value tourism or permanent accommodation. Some of this redevelopment ensures continued amenity, housing improvement and housing demand, which in turn maintains investment and economic prosperity within an area. But these processes can also displace lower-income groups and result in an overall shortage of affordable accommodation options in an area.

Protective mechanisms can control the demolition, change of use, and redevelopment of identified low-cost housing, such as boarding or rooming houses, hotels, caravan parks, or low-cost flats meeting defined criteria. They might also require a social impact assessment to be undertaken as part of the development approval process. Where redevelopment is permitted, remedies associated with protective mechanisms include setting aside a portion of new housing to be available for low-income people (in perpetuity or for a defined period of time) or financial assistance for relocating existing tenants.

Protective mechanisms need to be part of a longer-term strategy to increase the supply of affordable housing in areas of high need or they may merely lead to disinvestment in existing low-cost rental housing stock.

Examples of protective affordable housing policies include:

• Impact mitigation—conditions attached to a development approval to com¬pensate for an identified adverse environmental impact of the development. For example, redevelopment of existing affordable housing may be permitted if the proponent replaces it with an equivalent supply of affordable housing.
• Requiring social impact assessments—where a social impact assessment must be undertaken to determine impact on affordable housing in the area prior to approval.
• Controls for specific housing types—provisions which prevent the removal of specific forms of affordable housing such as residential parks or boarding houses
• Controls that limit housing size—to encourage the preservation of existing affordable housing stock, or limit the cost inflation associated with replacing existing housing with larger houses accommodating the same number of people (which perhaps also invites the opportunity for additional infill housing).

For the approach to be effectively implemented, protective requirements need to be clear and planning authority staff need to be trained in the interpretation of these requirements, and in identifying development proposals that are subject to these protections. Planning assessment staff also need to be effective at negotiating payments or other housing assistance to offset the impact on low-income residents if a project is approved.

To see examples of protective mechanisms click on the link below

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What are protective measures likely to achieve?

Provided that protective measures are introduced at a time when significant sources of low-cost accommodation remain in an area, they may prevent, slow or offset the loss of this housing. It may also introduce an additional burden to the conversion of low-cost housing and reduce pressure for redevelopment, even in speculative development markets.

Advantages

• Protective mechanisms provide a tool for identifying important sources of low-cost housing and for reducing the displacement of lower-income groups during gentrification.
• They signal to developers that affordable housing is important and valued in the local area and that proposals which threaten existing affordable housing supply need to demonstrate how this impact will be offset.
• They reduce the demand for new (replacement) housing and therefore the pressure on the building industry, which has inflated the cost of new housing.
• Protective mechanisms also reduce the demand for reconstruction of homes, conserving older buildings.

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Limitations

• There are often loopholes in implementing requirements that prevent or curtail redevelopment or change of use of low-cost housing stock (Greenhalgh, Minnery, Gurran, Jacobs and Phibbs, 2004).
• It is not desirable for substandard housing to continue in the rental sector, but protective measures can act as a deterrent to renovation. Alternatively, pro¬tec¬tive controls may be evaded if the developer is able to show that the housing is substandard and that major redevelopment or renovation is required.
• Effective implementation of this tool requires sound knowledge of the type and location of affordable housing stock within the local region as developers will not always voluntarily identify that their proposal affects existing low-cost housing stock.

For these reasons, the measure is not sufficient in itself as a way of preserving low-cost housing. Some states have sought to strengthen protective measures through grant programs that contribute to or offset costs of essential upgrading of boarding houses to meet fire safety requirements.

When using this tool, ensure that it does not act as a disincentive to the establish¬ment of or investment in established low-cost housing or in new or replacement stock. Barrier removal mechanisms to facilitate new development of lower-cost stock and incentives (discussed below) can address this possibility.

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Where will this measure have the greatest impact?

Protective measures have greatest effect where there is an existing supply of low-cost housing that is under threat of redevelopment. They are particularly important during periods of rapid population growth in existing urban areas and high amenity destinations.

Protective measures are also critical where there are limited alternative sources of low-cost housing remaining in an area so the stock that exists is particularly important for those who depend on it. An example is a caravan park affected by a redevelopment proposal, where occupants have almost no comparable alternatives within the area.

Protective measures are important in both inner city contexts where traditional sources of low-cost accommodation including boarding houses and hotel rooms remain, as well as in middle and outer ring metropolitan areas providing lower-cost rental flats, caravan parks, or manufactured home estates, and in coastal or inland settings where caravan parks are at threat of redevelopment for tourist developments or housing estates.

To see examples of protective mechanisms click on the link below

How to use this measure

1. Identify sources of affordable housing likely to be redeveloped or other development processes affecting the need for low-cost accommodation.
2. Identify measures to offset the impact of these processes on low-income households within the area (which will depend on the availability of other housing, relocation costs, etc.).
3. Identify a trigger for social impact assessment provisions to apply in cases of large scale redevelopment/development processes, if these are likely.
4. Identify controls to retain, replace or manage the redevelopment of specific stock at risk.

To see examples of protective mechanisms click on the link below

Click on the link below to determine whether this planning mechanism is recommended for your environment

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