Inner West Tenants Rally To Demand End To Impending Evictions

Private and public tenants facing evictions from their homes in Marrickville and Waterloo are joining forces in an upcoming rally to demand that landlords, local councils and the state government stop their impending evictions.

Erina Delinicolas, a Better Future Coalition spokesperson, and also a tenant threatened with eviction explained that tenants in a building on Ewart St, Marrickville will be evicted in January because their landlord wants to turn the block of apartments into short term holiday stays in the form of Airbnb’s.

“I am being turfed out of my cheap apartment in Warren Road Marrickville because the landlord wants to build an expensive apartment block and make exorbitant profits,” she said.

This past October, the Inner West Council adopted their Fairer Future plan—a plan set to fix the housing supply crisis in the local community. The Inner West Council explained that the plan aims to deliver between 20,000 and 30,000 new homes over 15 years. 

The plan is set to do so by redeveloping five Council owned carparks to deliver an estimated 350 new social housing dwellings, and allowing churches and faith-based charities to redevelop their lands for housing conditional upon 30 per cent of all homes being social housing. 

Additionally the plan included incorporating the City of Sydney’s policy of requiring a 3 per cent affordable housing contribution and all private development in the upzoned areas with 20 per cent required for any private planning proposal with additional floor space. 

However, according to Delinicola this plan won’t protect low cost rental. She explained that because only 3% of the new apartments that could be built will be designated affordable, and affordable is only defined as 80% of market rate, this is really not affordable to a lot of people.

“My concern with the Fairer Future plan is that the government is acting like this crisis will be resolved by the private market that they have pushed through this pro developer plan, which will gentrify our community,” she told City Hub.

“Landlords are seeing housing as a commodity rather than a human.”

Delinicola said Sydney doesn’t just have a housing pricing crisis, there is an affordable housing crisis.

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne explained the Fairer Future plan when it was first adopted, that the plan is based on independent expert advice and evidence about what will actually work to deliver new homes.

“We examined proposals for up to 30% affordable housing contributions from private development and the evidence and economic modelling showed this would have required skyscrapers throughout the Inner West in order to be feasible.”

“We are also proposing a compact with the NSW Government to deliver 1,000 new social housing dwellings over 10 years and replicating the City of Sydney’s policy for affordable housing contributions from private development,” said Byrne, and added that his council had called on the NSW Government to gazette their policy and repeal their TOD and other rezonings immediately.

Regulation and security for tenants needed as part of a solution

In a motion made in October, the Greens moved to unlock thousands of homes in the City of Sydney as secure, long-term rentals, by proposing a cap on Airbnb short-term rentals to 60 days per year, for homes that are not the host’s primary home. This was to get more homes back into the long term rental market.

Delinicola explained that she would like to see solutions like this from the Inner West Council, as well as a guarantee from the government for affordable housing and to build public housing.

“We need regulations for short term accommodation stays like Airbnbs, you know, because, you know, we’re in a housing crisis, and we’re seeing a lot of empty homes,” she concluded. 

City Hub reached out to Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne for a comment on this matter, who did not respond by time of publication.