BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS
The City of Sydney Council is partnering with the Salvation Army to deliver affordable housing in the inner city.
The City said it will pay the design costs for a new development, which will allow the development to exceed height regulations.
The development is planned to cost $55 million, and will deliver 166 low cost housing dwellings, including 48 homes to be used for crisis accommodation.
The City of Sydney is contributing $250,000 to the development which will meet ‘design excellence standards’, allowing the height restrictions of the area to be exceeded.
The proposed development is estimated to be 25 metres in height.
The 118 affordable housing units will have rents that are capped, in an effort to allow lower income workers to live close to inner city workplaces.
The City of Sydney said that the rent in the development will be generally capped at 30 per cent of a resident’s income
City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said that low cost accommodation was “urgently needed” for people who were finding it increasingly difficult to afford to live in inner city apartments.
“Every new affordable housing dwelling allows another lower income worker to live near essential city jobs, avoiding long trips from the city’s outer areas,” Clr
Moore said in a statement.
“Successful global cities need a diverse mix of residents and affordable housing is essential to make sure Sydney doesn’t become an enclave only affordable for the well off.”
“We have an ambitious target to make 7.5 per cent of all housing in the City LGA affordable housing, delivered and run by not-for-profit organisations like the
Salvation Army,” she said.
But not everyone is happy with the partnership between the City and The Salvation Army.
Convenor of the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, Justin Koonin, said that The Salvation Army was known for its problematic relationship with the LGBQTI community.
In July this year, Fairfax media reported that the general manager of the Oasis
Youth Centre in Surry Hills, run by The Salvation Army, quit after a young woman was told to pray away her feeling of same-sex attraction.
However, in 2012 the Australian Salvation Army distanced itself from comments made by the US branch of the charity that said homosexuality “is an unacceptable urge”.
Mr Koonin said that the Lobby group would be watching the partnership of the City and the Salvos very carefully.
“Given recent events at the Oasis Youth Centre, and previously in 2012 where a senior Salvation Army officer effectively said gay people deserve to die, and when the group made submissions to the House of Representatives as to why marriage equality was unsuitable, we would question whether the public statements matches with the actual practice on the grounds,” Mr Koonin said.
“It is natural to question whether those statements are put into practice, and will be watching closely to make sure services are provided in a manner which is wholly non-discriminatory.”
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