Inner West Locals Rally Against Council’s Mass Housing Plan
Image: NSW Socialists/Facebook
Undeterred by the rain, hundreds of locals turned up outside Ashfield Civic Centre in raincoats and umbrellas, chanting and waving placards as Inner West Council laid out its biggest housing overhaul in years.
The plan would enable roughly 30,000–35,000 new homes over 15 years, including up to 8,000 along Parramatta Road—and many residents are furious about the scale and pace.
Inside, a four-hour public forum drew more than 80 speakers and, according to the council, the largest number of young attendees at a council forum.
The proposal, called the Fairer Future Plan, would build most buildings to six to eleven storeys around town centres and transport hubs, including Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Croydon and Ashfield.
Light-rail stops and shopping strips are also in scope, with “shop-top” apartments scattered along roads such as Old Canterbury Rd, Wardell Rd, Liverpool Rd, Norton St, Crystal St and Marion St.
Council said the Inner West needs more homes near trains and buses to help ease Sydney’s housing crunch.
“There is no way to solve the housing crisis without building many more homes,” Mayor Darcy Byrne told the meeting, saying that what young locals want was to act now.
Inner West residents heat up over housing crisis targets
The community calls it overdevelopment that will put pressure on schools, parks, traffic and already-strained services, while changing the character of established suburbs.
A community forum held by the Better Future Coalition on 27 July, strongly rejected the Inner West Council’s misleading and poorly publicised ‘Our Fairer Future’ draft local development (LEP) plan.
“We really don’t need more private housing,” said organiser Rachel Evans. “We need mass, beautiful public housing to solve the housing crisis.”
Byrne later rejected criticism from the forum and said the support of community housing and welfare sectors such as Shelter NSW, the Faith Housing Alliance, and the Tenants Union of NSW proved that the Council was “on the right track” with the Fairer Future plan.
“Organisations committed to social justice recognise that delivering more homes and more affordable housing is the central challenge for our Inner West community today,” he said.
“More than that, their submissions give expert advice on how we can increase the amount of not-for-profit housing while significantly increasing housing supply overall.”
The Better Future Coalition says many of its own proposals line up with Shelter NSW’s—such as pushing for a higher affordable-housing target and more three-bedroom (or larger) homes.
“Engaging with peak bodies like Shelter NSW is an important part of the community consultation, but it should not be considered a replacement for meaningful, accountable engagement with Inner West residents, businesses, schools and other community members likely to be seriously affected by the Plan,” the Coalition said in a statement to CityHub.
Former NSW Greens convener and ex-Leichhardt councillor, Hall Greenland, said at the rally that housing “has got to stop being a commodity that landlords, big corporations, builders and developers exploit”, arguing the plan is “fairer” to developers than to the community.
About 22,000 of the proposed dwellings would be concentrated in Ashfield, Marrickville and Dulwich Hill, with extra height and density focused around stations and main roads.
The council casts its plan as a local alternative to the state’s transport-oriented development program, which enables mid-rise blocks within 400 metres of selected stations.
Council staff are assessing thousands of submissions, with the plan set to be voted on next Tuesday at an extraordinary meeting of the Council.
