Marked the official opening of Harts Landing an integrated development that will be home to more than 500 people in the centre of the vibrant Penrith CBD.

The development was officially opened by Minister Pru Goward MP- Minister for Family and Community Services, Minister for Social Housing, and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and Minister Stuart Ayres MP – Minister for Western Sydney and Minister for West Connex, along with Dominic Sullivan – Director PAYCE and Andrea Galloway – Managing Director and CEO of Community Housing Provider Evolve Housing.

We would like to thank The Hon. Minister Pru Goward MP and The Hon. Minister Stuart Ayres MP for joining us at the official opening. Harts Landing provides a much-needed boost to the number of private, affordable and social housing homes in Penrith. In total, the project delivers 268 apartments with 124 affordable apartments, 10 social housing, and 134 private market homes.

This exceptional development is the result of innovative thinking about how to grow the supply of affordable housing within an integrated housing model in the context of urban renewal. We would like to thank Evolve Housing our partner.

Director PAYCE, Dominic Sullivan, said “PAYCE is delighted to have delivered Harts Landing in conjunction with Evolve Housing. This unique development showcases how community housing providers and private developers can work together to provide residents a place where the whole community can enjoy a great lifestyle and interact with their surroundings. Harts Landing’s location presented a great opportunity to create something special in urban renewal on a site that was vacant land close to a great deal of amenity.”

Andrea Galloway, CEO from Evolve Housing said “We’re seeing the social housing waitlist grow, in part because there is not enough affordable housing to assist those who are borderline and being placed into housing stress and homelessness due to the expensive private rental market.”

“This exceptional development is the result of innovative thinking about how to grow the supply of affordable housing within an integrated housing model. PAYCE our development partner, worked tirelessly on this journey with us and provided expertise, shared the risks and also the rewards.”

“I would like to thank both the State and Federal Governments for their contribution in the provision of National Rental Affordability Scheme incentives for affordable housing. These incentives assist in funding the discount to market rent for the affordable homes and if they were not available the project financials would not have stacked up to enable Evolve Housing to deliver such a great outcome for the community.”

“At Evolve Housing we don’t just build housing, we help empower residents to build communities by putting the right conditions in place. Affordable housing such as this, which is well located close to transport, jobs and amenities, provides a genuine stepping stone from social housing to private housing and has the capacity to break the cycle of intergenerational disadvantage.”

The average Sydney rental reached $550 per week in December 2017. This has pushed many low, and even middle-income, families into housing stress as they struggle to afford housing payments on top of the high cost of living in Sydney. Action is needed now to deal with the housing crisis and to support those working families living in housing stress. Harts Landing is an example of such action being taken.