AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE SPOTLIGHT

It’s National Homelessness Week, and Coffs Harbour’s major shortage of affordable housing is back in the spotlight.

An open day was held at Coffs Community Village, bringing together a number of support groups that are taking on the fight to find housing for those who are struggling.

“It’s one of the difficult parts of this job is that we’re seeing a lot of young people in crisis and it’s just really hard for the demographic when they’ve got no support so we try and help out as best we can.”

There were more than 37,000 homeless people in New South Wales in the most recent census.

The homeless rate has spiked by 37 per cent since 2011.