“Crushing demand” for social and affordable housing raises flags with new Redfern development

By AMBER GRIFFIN

The plans for a Redfern North Eveleigh Precinct development have come under scrutiny by the City of Sydney, Shelter NSW, and other stakeholders for its lack of affordable and social housing options, as well as other shortcomings highlighted in the proposal.

The proposed rezoning of an area called the ‘Paint Shop Sub-Precinct’ features the redevelopment into a ‘Tech Central’ on hectares of public railway land between the Carriageworks and Redfern Station.

Due to the proposal only committing to 15% affordable and social housing, the City of Sydney is concerned that the masterplan fails to meet the City’s target for a minimum of 25% affordable rental housing, in accordance with Priority L3 of the City’s Local Strategic Planning Statement.

Public exhibition now closed

Community members and groups have jumped at the opportunity to provide a submission to the public exhibition on Transport for NSW’s (TfNSW) rezoning proposals for the Paint Shop Sub-Precinct at North Eveleigh. Many submissions expressed concern that there is a lack of affordable and social housing options included in the masterplan.

Peak housing body, Shelter NSW, submitted to the public exhibition urging for more social and affordable housing included in the City of Sydney, and stressed that key and essential workers are suffering acute housing stress across Sydney.

“The Paint Shop proposal is one of many NSW Government public housing development proposals in the inner city. Others include sites in Glebe, Waterloo, Redfern, and South Eveleigh” Shelter NSW’s Senior Policy Officer Cathy Callaghan said.

“Shelter NSW has consistently pushed the NSW Government to deliver a better outcome on each of these sites, all on public land”

Callaghan said that there is a “crushing demand” for more social and affordable housing options across Sydney and NSW.

“It is frustrating to see so little extra social housing committed in these proposals” she said

“The NSW Government has the power, resources and responsibility to do better.”

The City of Sydney’s submission to the public exhibition includes an extensive list of ways that the redevelopment plans can be improved, with an emphasis on the need for more affordable and social housing.

A significant stress in the submission is that the proposals do not meet the City’s target for a minimum of 25% affordable rental housing.

A spokesperson for the City of Sydney said that Council’s housing strategy, Housing for All, aims to increase private dwellings by 37,000 by 2036.

In their submission to the Department of Planning, the Council included a recommendation for a requirement of 25% on site affordable rental housing. This includes an additional 15% diverse housing for student housing, co-living, and mixed-use tenure housing to accommodate creative/live/work opportunities.

“Transport for NSW’s proposal for the renewal of the North Eveleigh precinct includes 15% affordable housing, which the City believes should be increased to 25%” the City of Sydney spokesperson said.

“TfNSW can meet this request by simply agreeing to allocate 25% rather 15% of the site’s housing stock to community housing providers. In addition, we ask that 10% of the housing stock is earmarked for indigenous residents.”

Shelter NSW proposes alternative housing mix

Shelter NSW has proposed an alternative housing mix that includes 1/3 social housing and 1/3 affordable housing (rental and home ownership), where the latter includes affordable rental housing (owned and managed by the Community Housing sector); affordable Build-to-Rent; affordable student housing and shared equity home ownership targeted at certain cohorts.

Shelter NSW also proposed a committal of at least 10% of the social and affordable housing stock go to the First Nations community.

“We recognise the effort and commitment being made to prioritise the delivery of some form of ‘affordable’ and ‘diverse’ housing on this site – on land currently reserved for ‘transport’ and recognise the leadership of Minister Rob Stokes in driving that commitment” Shelter NSW said.

“However, given the proposed loss of a major public land asset; the lack of commitment to a substantial delivery of social housing and affordable housing, and the capacity of Government to exercise its considerable power to do more, we contend that the proposal fails to stack up.”

The City of Sydney has identified that the local area requires 14,000 additional affordable and social dwellings by 2036.

“There are already over 1,000 households on the social housing waiting list in the city. If this development doesn’t make a major and bigger contribution to meeting this demand what other sites will?” Shelter NSW said.

“Shelter NSW supports the vision of Sydney as diverse and prosperous – a place where people from all walks and stages of life, incomes, cultures, and family sizes can comfortably live. The lack of truly affordable housing, especially for renters, threatens to undermine this vision.”

A Transport for NSW spokesperson responded to City Hub’s questions about the inclusion of social and affordable housing in the draft plan.

“Our proposal is delivering 450 new homes, including 15 per cent affordable housing, as well as 15 per cent diverse housing, earmarked for renters, students or over-55s” the spokesperson said. 

 “We are listening to the community through the formal planning process, and will respond to submissions from the community later this year.”

All feedback received during the public exhibition is currently being considered, and a response is being prepared to the submissions received. The Department of Planning and Environment will assess the proposal and make a recommendation to the Minister for Planning, who will decide whether to approve the Paint Shop Sub-Precinct rezoning.