Will the Bega Valley make room for tiny homes on wheels and caravans as somewhere to live? Its council has started on the rules, and has not finished them. At its meeting on 23 September 2026 the council resolved that staff prioritise the finalisation of a Local Approvals Policy and supporting LEP amendment to facilitate the use of tiny homes on wheels and caravans as aligned to the intent of the Affordable Housing Strategy, particularly strategy 5
. The vote was 9 to 0 (minutes, resolution 111/26).
The same resolution sets the order of what comes next: once drafted, the proposed Local Approvals Policy and supporting LEP amendment be reported to Council for approval to seek Gateway approval from the state government and publicly exhibit
. The minutes give no date for any of those steps. The LEP is the Bega Valley Local Environmental Plan 2013, and the resolution routes the change through the state's Gateway approval. Until those steps are done, the resolution itself changes no rule.
What resolution 111/26 sets in train
In the order the minutes give. No dates are given for any step
- 1Staff draft the policy and the LEP amendment. The resolution asks them to prioritise it. Where things stood after 23 September.
- 2Back to council. The draft is reported to councillors for approval to seek Gateway approval.
- 3Gateway approval from the state government for the LEP amendment.
- 4Public exhibition, when residents can comment.
Councillors added it
The item was the council's six-monthly report on its Affordable Housing Strategy, covering 1 January to 30 June 2026. The staff report asked councillors to note two things and nothing more: the progress made, and the housing indicators in its attachment (agenda, item 8.2, page 75). The resolution, moved by Crs Daly and O'Neil, kept those two points and added four. Councillors noted recent Land and Environment Court determinations on mobile homes, caravans and tiny homes, one of them in a case to which Bega Valley Shire Council was a party; noted Shellharbour's tiny home pilot; and then asked for the policy and the LEP change (minutes). We have not read the two court determinations, and the minutes do not say what they decided.
What the staff report recommended, and what the council resolved
Officer's recommendation, point 1 of 2
That Council notes the progress made in implementing the Bega Valley Shire Affordable Housing Strategy in the period 1 January 2026 to 30 June 2026.
Resolution 111/26, point 5 of 6
Resolve that staff prioritise the finalisation of a Local Approvals Policy and supporting LEP amendment to facilitate the use of tiny homes on wheels and caravans as aligned to the intent of the Affordable Housing Strategy, particularly strategy 5.
Strategy 5 matters for who this is for. In the council's 2022 Affordable Housing Strategy it is the homelessness strategy: Council will seek alternative housing options for the growing number of homeless and at risk people in the shire as a matter of urgency
. Its actions include reviewing planning controls so that projects like the Gosford Tiny Homes Foundation's can be built in the shire, and placing small manufactured homes or tiny homes on vacant public or philanthropic land (Affordable Housing Strategy, pages 15, 21 and 22). The staff report also records that the mayor wrote to Minister Scully, Minister Jackson and Dr Holland regarding the urgent need for clarification regarding tiny homes
(agenda, page 76).
The count in the same report
The report's most striking figure is not the council's own. The NSW street count, a head count of people seen sleeping rough on one night, found 31 people in the Bega Valley on 18 March 2026. A year earlier, on 18 February 2025, it found 14. That is the highest of the seven counts the state has run in the shire since 2020, and both years covered the same six scheduled locations (Homes NSW, 2026 technical paper, Appendix A; 2025 technical paper, Appendix A).
People counted sleeping rough, one square each
NSW street count, by local government area, 2025 and 2026
Bega Valley, 202514 people
Bega Valley, 202631 people
Eurobodalla, 202537 people
Eurobodalla, 202639 people
Shoalhaven, 202516 people
Shoalhaven, 202612 people
Eurobodalla's count was higher still, 39, after 37 the year before; Shoalhaven's fell from 16 to 12. Across the three councils that is 82 people in 2026 against 67 in 2025, our addition. The Bega Valley figure has jumped before: 26 in 2022, then 12 in 2023. The council's report is careful with it, saying this data does not tell the full story of homelessness
, and the state describes the method in the same terms: Street counts are purely observational and provide a point-in-time count of the number of people in a location observed to be experiencing street homelessness.
(2026 technical paper, page 3).
Seven years of the count on this coast
| Year | Bega Valley | Eurobodalla | Shoalhaven |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 5 | 0 | 6 |
| 2021 | 4 | 3 | 20 |
| 2022 | 26 | 24 | 11 |
| 2023 | 12 | 59 | 19 |
| 2024 | 18 | 29 | 20 |
| 2025 | 14 | 37 | 16 |
| 2026 | 31 | 39 | 12 |
Prices up, rents down, one affordable listing
The indicator report attached to the item gives the market side, with a warning the council repeats: its affordability measures rest on incomes extrapolated from the 2021 Census, so they should be treated with caution. Its median house price, $880,000 for the quarter ending December 2025, is up 11 per cent on June 2025 and a record, though only just above the $877,500 of 2022 and 2023. The median house rent fell 14 per cent over the same six months to $560 a week. Affordable rental listings rose over 2025, yet the report says only one rental listing is recorded as affordable to very low income households
(agenda, pages 76 and 77; attachment 2, pages 101 and 103).
The council's housing indicators, as reported on 23 September
Median house price
$880,000
Quarter ending December 2025. Up 11 per cent on June 2025.
Median house rent
$560
A week, quarter ending December 2025. Down 14 per cent on June 2025.
Affordable to very low incomes
1
Rental listing, in the report's words, recorded as affordable to very low income households.
The same report is frank about pace. It lists among the period's key challenges extended staffing shortages that have impacted progress on the urban renewal project and height of buildings review
, with a new strategic planner starting in early July and a three-day-a-week planner in August (agenda, page 76).
The pilot up the coast
The pilot councillors noted is Shellharbour's, and it shows what such a policy can look like. Shellharbour City Council describes it as creating a new pathway for eligible mobile tiny homes to be used as long-term rental accommodation across the Shellharbour local government area
. It runs for two years, and covers tiny homes built on wheels that can be registered as a vehicle (Shellharbour City Council, pilot program page). Its fact sheet says it needed the same two parts Bega Valley has asked for: a Local Approvals Policy under section 68 of the Local Government Act, and an amendment to the LEP, so that eligible homes can be used as rental accommodation without a development application, provided they meet its criteria and receive approval under the policy. Land must be residential, hold one existing house, and be clear of flood, heritage, environmental and contamination constraints (Shellharbour tiny homes fact sheet).
How long Shellharbour's took, by the months its fact sheet gives
- 1September 2025. Council endorses preparing the planning proposal.
- 2December 2025. Planning proposal submitted.
- 3March 2026. Gateway determination issued.
- 4April to May 2026. Public exhibition.
- 5June 2026. Council endorses finalising the pilot program.
- 6September 2026. LEP amended and trial in force.
Bega Valley's resolution does not say it will copy Shellharbour. Shellharbour's pilot is a rental pathway on residential blocks that already hold a house; Bega Valley's points at strategy 5, which is about people who are homeless or at risk of it. Those can be different policies.
Our view
This is opinion, built on the documents above. Councillors were right to turn a report to be noted into a request for action. A count that went from 14 to 31 at the same six locations, and an indicator report that finds one rental listing affordable to the lowest-income households, are reasons to move, whatever the caveats on each number.
But "prioritise" is not a date. The same report says staff shortages slowed the council's other planning work, and Shellharbour, with a model already drawn up, took twelve months from endorsing its planning proposal to having the trial in force. Bega Valley has not yet drafted its policy. The council should publish a timetable for the draft and say plainly who the policy is for: a crisis and short-term option under strategy 5, a rental pathway like Shellharbour's, or both. And while that work goes on, residents would be helped by a plain account of what the rules are now, given that the council has noted court decisions on exactly these homes and its mayor has written of an urgent need for clarification.
Methodology
We read the Bega Valley Shire Council agenda for 23 September 2026 (item 8.2, pages 75 to 79, with its two attachments) and the minutes of that meeting (resolution 111/26). The attachments are image pages with no text layer; the quarter for the $880,000 median price and the quarter and weekly basis of the $560 median rent were read by eye from attachment 2, PDF pages 101 and 103, on 10 October 2026; every other figure from the report is in its text. We read the council's Affordable Housing Strategy (May 2022) for strategy 5; Homes NSW's 2026 and 2025 street count technical papers, Appendix A, for the counts, dates and scheduled locations; and Shellharbour City Council's pilot program page (last updated 25 September 2026) and tiny homes fact sheet. Totals across the three councils (82 and 67) and the twelve months are our arithmetic. We have not read the two Land and Environment Court determinations the council noted, the mayor's letter, or attachment 1 (the implementation plan) in full, and we have not put questions to the council for this piece.