In-house intimidation

Housing NSW has been accused of intimidating Millers Point public housing residents.

A spokesperson, who wished to remain anonymous, said the department encouraged residents to remain silent on the state of disrepair of their homes.

Residents are afraid to “make a fuss”, fearing the loss of their homes or services if they do, he said.

“Such is the intimidation of the department.”

Millers Point residents declined to be interviewed.

The spokesperson said that on Thursday, July 1, a Sydney public housing tenant fell through the floor of her apartment after the NSW Department of Housing failed in its duty to maintain the property.

The floorboards of the apartment had been weakened by a termite infestation.

“The Sydney office needs to be seriously looked into as to the way they’re doing duty of care to their tenants,” he said.

“They’re just not doing their job.”

A statement issued to City News by a spokesperson for Housing NSW denied the claims.

“Any suggestion that a tenant of Housing NSW living in Millers Point has fallen through a hole in her floor, is false. Any suggestion that Housing NSW has intimidated tenants in Millers Point, or anywhere else, is equally false,” the statement said.

“Repairs to floors are treated as urgent given there are OH&S considerations for the tenant involved.”

The spokesperson said Housing NSW has a statutory obligation under the Heritage Act, which applies to both tenanted and vacant properties.

The claim of intimidation comes less than a fortnight after NSW Minister for Housing Frank Terenzini announced the sale of 20 99-year leases of Millers Point public housing properties, which is to be put towards public housing projects.

Mr Terenzini said that the program had “reduced the maintenance liability to Housing NSW as these are heritage-listed properties that would otherwise have cost millions of dollars to upgrade to the standard required by the heritage authorities and also for their ongoing heritage cyclical maintenance program.”

“The Millers Point lease sales program has directly funded the development of more appropriate housing to meet the current and future needs of social housing tenants,” Mr Terenzini said.

However, the spokesperson for Millers Point residents believes that the department has failed in its responsibilities to residents, and is frustrated to see empty properties being renovated while those which are tenanted are neglected.

“Money’s being spent on these properties that they’re going to sell, so they’re replacing roofs and floors there, when, in actual fact, they should be doing it as part of their duty of care to where residents are actually living,” he said.

The Housing NSW spokesperson said that lessees, not Housing NSW, would renovate the properties at their own expense, under the supervision of the NSW Heritage Council.

“The only work done to the fabric of properties on the sales program in Millers Point is basic cleaning work, and some fire upgrading work required in order to obtain subdivision.”

By Alex Giblin