A community meeting at Dave Taylor Park was held Wednesday morning to invite feedback from Pioneer residents about the current Griffin Green housing development plan.
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Griffith City Council together with Argyle Homes and NSW Department of Communities and Justice held the meeting to open up communication channels with residents to better understand the community's feelings on the project.
A number of residents of the surrounding areas of the development were in attendance and voiced some concerns regarding the project.
Among common issues raised were the park location in the current plan and the fact that children of the area stand to lose popular park facilities such as the basketball court and skate park to make way for the development.
Pioneer Community Centre manager Leonie Kawelmacher, stated that there were fears that the children of Pioneer were going to be the most disadvantaged by the development.
"We're scared the kids are going to lose out in this," Ms Kawelmacher said.
"The kids use this space 24 hours a day, if they take it away what are the kids going to do?"
Whilst the stage one plans of the development do include a park space, Ms Kawelmacher said that there is not a lot of faith in the Pioneer community that promises will be kept to replace sport and leisure facilities for the children.
"We have been promised stuff before and nothing comes of it," Ms Kawelmacher said.
Griffin Green is a joint development initiative of Argyle Housing, Griffith City Council and the Federal Government to provide affordable housing options in Griffith.
An overwhelming concern voiced was that the development will not improve housing availability for residents of Pioneer who mostly access social housing. Currently, there is a waiting list for social housing in Griffith which results in many people put into precarious living situations.
Wendy Middleton, CEO of Argyle Community Housing, explained that the purpose of this project was to provide affordable housing for low income earners in Griffith who have been steadily squeezed out of the market due to the housing shortage here.
However, she stressed that much of the criteria for access to the new properties was still undergoing feedback processes and was therefore open to input from the community.
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