Inner Sydney Boarding House Saved From Demolition In Last Minute Bid

A developer with plans to turn an affordable inner Sydney boarding house into “boutique high-end residential and commercial projects” has lost its appeal in the Land and Environment Court.

LFD Developments failed in its bid to overturn the City of Sydney’s rejection of their planning application for the boarding houses known as Selwyn Street.

Selwyn Street had offered affordable housing for vulnerable and low-income men since WWII, and had been keeping people off the streets until the last residents were evicted earlier this year.

Hearing the matter on Thursday, the court ruled that its demolition would be an “unacceptable loss of affordable rental boarding house accommodation.”

While acknowledging the importance of Selwyn Street to the community, the court also recognised the role boarding houses play in providing housing for low-income earners in the inner city.

“The individual contribution which a particular low rental building makes to the overall supply of low rental accommodation may be small, but the cumulative impact of many such losses is significant,” the judgment continued. “It is therefore important to consider each application in the context of long-term cumulative trends.”

LFD has 28 days to go to the Court of Appeal.

Historic but “hard day” for former residents

Sydney Greens councillor Sylvie Ellsmore said that while the decision was a “historic win” for housing in Sydney, it had come too late for the tenants.

Many of the former residents had been living there for decades, paying $150-$200 in rent per week. With houses in Paddington being sold for millions of dollars today, their eviction forced residents to leave the community they know and love in order to find housing.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said she hoped the decision set a precedent to help prevent the loss of affordable housing to private residential development.

“Sydney should not simply be an enclave for the rich,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald. “And we need more affordable housing options in the city, not less. That’s why stories like this are so confronting and why the City rejected this development application in the first place.

“We’re in a housing affordability crisis, and governments must preserve and deliver affordable and diverse housing – including boarding houses.”

Grassroots advocacy group, Action for Public Housing, is calling on the City to buy the properties. Housing Minister Rose Jackson said in December that the NSW government would contribute and purchase part of Selwyn Street alongside the City, but LFD failed to respond to the offer.