We would like to thank Ray Saunders from The Island Engineer. He provided his services to produce soil testing at a discounted price for our charitable purpose. Being a civil engineer myself, I have seen a lot of soil classification tests. Ray has produced a comprehensive report that can be expected of a professional engineer. Glad that we have these skills on the Islands.
We are grateful that SMBI businesses are supporting the wellbeing of the community by providing exceptional service at affordable prices. This contributes to allowing the SMBI CLT to provide the housing more affordably and to ultimately provide more housing solutions for the community.
Last week Andrew attended the SMBI Homelessness Outreach hub at the Russel Island Recreation Hall.
It is a great initiative that is driven by Redland City Council with the vision being: to work together to help more SMBI residents flourish, through appropriate, affordable, safe and accessible accommodation.
There were a range of local and mainland support services contributing to solutions. These services are doing wonderful work attending to the triage needs that we have in the SMBI community. In support, the representatives from the State Government (Dept Communities, Disability Services and Seniors) who attended were looking in part at how to enable capacity building for these community service organisations.
Triage services are required where there is a crisis, and they attend to urgent needs. These services are crucial because lives are saved at the point of effect culmination. Some of the effects that the SMBI is experiencing is domestic violence, community violence, alcohol and substance abuse, anxiety, loneliness and depression. These effects are visible every day as you catch the ferry and go to the shops.
In addition to addressing the urgent needs, we must also put considerable effort into addressing the important but hidden causes of these effects. Without this focus on addressing the causes, our community members will continue to go through the mincer, and as the community grows there will be more people requiring triage services.
We have all heard that prevention is better than cure, however prevention requires discipline, persistence and systemic change.
One of the significant contributors to the cause of the societal issues that we experience in this community (and Australian society as a whole) is housing stress. In order to grow a resilient community, housing stress must be reduced. Housing stress results from our housing (market) system. With this being the case, the best way that we know to reduce housing stress over the long term is to remove properties from the market and provide safe, secure and affordable accommodation. This requires time, focus, effort and a community investment.
In the near future we will be calling on the community to invest in its wellbeing.
Thanks to our prospective resident who completed the three week CAP Money Course yesterday. It was a fun journey!
Reflecting on the course, she had the following responses to some questions:
1) What was the best part of the course? Answer: The best part of the course was listening/hearing THEN putting it in action/work.
2) What has been the most helpful thing you have learnt on the course? Answer: Learning about the three Bank Accounts and setting it up to help me budget and to MAINTAIN A BUDGET SYSTEM, i.e. Regular Account, Cash Account and Goal Savings Account.
3) If you were to pass on a money-related tip to a friend, what would it be? Answer: I would tell my friend/family to not only listen but put into action the CAP Money Course. Also not to ignore money circumstances so that they can have goals and save money.
If you are a resident of the Southern Moreton Bay Islands and would like to attend a free CAP Money Course, please feel welcome to contact us.
Thank you Magnus for providing us with a beautiful and energy efficient home design.
We will be building the first SMBI CLT home using the UMBS (Universal Modular Building System). See a project that was built in 2008 on Russell Island at https://www.goevolve.com.au/project-4-1
The UMBS is an attractive, cost competitive and superior built form. These claims are substantiated by the fact that QUT (Queensland University of Technology) obtained a grant from the QLD government to source the best modular building system in the world. The chosen system called UMBS designed by Icelandic born Magnus G. Bjornsson happened to be found locally in Brisbane. Subsequently UMBS was invited to be associated with IFE (Institute of Future Environments) who are the commercial arm of QUT. IFE has a mission to bring together mutually fitting company-innovations into clusters for cooperation where the combination will work better than each innovation on its own. Later UMBS also teamed up with Integrated Design for Sustainable Living, which focuses on creating self-sustainable communities. This collective provides additional options for communities of 30+ homes that offer exceptionally improved standards of living.
In the future, we intend to take advantage of the options that are available for creating self-sustainable communities.
We would like to thank John Bonett from JSBS Earthmoving and Tree Specialists for his and his team’s great work on the block. John very generously provided us with a discounted service as a contribution to providing secure and affordable housing to the Southern Moreton Bay Islands community.
John’s discussion on options for saving us money was very much appreciated since it allowed the CLT board to look at budget vs risk and make an informed decision.
Having spoken to and received quotes from other loppers, we found JSBS Earthmoving and Tree Specialists to be the number one choice when it came to price, flexibility and service. Thanks John.
Jamie was kind enough to use the excavator to load my ute with the stumps for me to take to the tip. Thanks Jamie!The chipping being done by JSBS Earthmoving and Tree Services.
Gary and Andrew on the felling weekend with the SMBI CLT proposed resident
We have been busy on the block, and we look forward to providing a home for the first proposed resident. Before the weekend, I had asked some questions about her current situation and why she would like to be in a CLT home rather than in a private rental. Here are some of her answers:
Q.1 How long have you lived on Russell Island?
I moved to Russell Island on 1st December, 2018.
Q.2 Do you currently work?
For the last eight years I have been working as a House Cleaner/Office Worker/Personal Carer for a Family. I started off as a House Cleaner but the Family needed more and more help. I invoice all my work and keep honest records.
I also work for free at my Parents doing their house work and ironing etc. every fortnight.
Q.3 Why do you want to get into a CLT property?
Nearly every day since I moved to Russell Island I have prayed that I could have a permanent rental so I don’t have to move.
When I was informed about CLT permanent rental it was exciting as I don’t mind paying rent and it would be permanent.
Q.4 What is your biggest concern about being in a private rental?
My biggest concern about private rental is that the house would be sold or I have to move out. I often hear from other people who rent that they have to move because the Owner is selling or moving in.
Q.5 How would it affect you if you were asked to move out of your current rental home?
If I were asked to move out I would be very disappointed. It costs a lot of money and time to move and set up home and not knowing when I would have to move again.
Q.6 Where would you go?
I don’t know where I would go and I am at a lost where it would be. I checked out the rental market on the mainland and it is too expensive.
Q.7 If you had a permanent place to live, how do you think that would affect your life?
All my life I have tried to work whether paid or volunteer. I have always wanted a place I could call home. Having a permanent place would be an answer to prayer. I look after people’s homes as if it was mine with pride and care.
SMBI CLT is looking forward to being able to provide a secure and stable housing solution to this valued community member.
We are pleased to announce that SMBI CLT acquired its first allotment on Russell Island on Friday 19/2. Gary and Andrew were busy over the weekend felling trees on the block. Thanks to Wayne for lending us his chainsaw when ours was playing up, and thanks to our lovely proposed resident who brought us cold water, cordial and insect repellent. Nice to have seen the neighbours and to have had a bit of a chat.
A bit of a breather whilst doing the work. Our lovely proposed resident brought us some cold water, cordial and insect repellent.
I was down at the Russell Island ferry terminal this week looking at the notice board and I saw these two ads. With a very low vacancy rate on the islands (around 1%), people are being dislocated from the community as rents are rising.
SMBI CLT is trying to do something about this, and we are hoping that it is not going to be a case of too little too late.
If anyone is concerned about the situation on the islands, please feel welcome to contact us. No one can solve this problem alone. It will require a community effort.
On a positive note, we went unconditional on the lot that we are purchasing.
Thanks to those who responded to our advertisement and helped us to source a block of land for our first CLT home on Russell Island. In particular, thanks to Chris and Karen who are local real estate agents and Stephen who is a member of the public. We have put in an offer on some land and had it accepted and are just waiting for the signed contract to come back.
Here are some of the lots that were the top runners.
The ad that was published on Tuesday 5th January.Lot 1 was over our budget when we took into consideration power, water and clearing.Lot 2 ticked a lot of boxes, but had a couple of large trees that would put us over budget.Lot 3 again had some huge gums that would put us slightly over budget, but the main issue was the timing for settlement which due to the vendor’s circumstances meant that we wouldn’t be able to settle until their situation was sorted out. Lot 4 has quite a bit of clearing of small trees, however the clincher on this lot was the neighbour who was a delightful gentleman and would be a great neighbour for any resident of the CLT home.
