NSW Government’s $800 million question mark

By Elizabeth Jarrett

While 270 homeless Sydneysiders will receive beds, the state government has yet to release details on $800 million of funding cuts as part of its latest budget.

Funding allocation for welfare and housing programs in and around the city total $44 million. This includes $7.6 million for 243 new social and affordable houses in Glebe and the completion of 27 units in Camperdown.

Executive Officer of Shelter NSW, Mary Perkins, said: “This cut of $800 million to as yet unidentified government programs is a concern. We have made it very clear that we hope that the housing assistance programs are spared from those cuts.”

Ms Perkins said the budget will continue to fund current NSW Land and Housing Corporation, Housing NSW and Community Housing programs but is disappointed the NSW Government isn’t doing more to address homelessness.

“We are pleased that there is a commitment to what’s already on the ground … but we’ve argued long and hard that our housing crisis is so severe that there actually needs to be commitment over and beyond the ‘business as usual approach’.”

Regional manager of government-funded outreach agency Way2Home, Malcolm Scott, said the budget will deliver significant improvements to the lives of Sydney’s homeless.

“We have a number of clients who are wait-listed for priority housing through Social Housing and NSW Housing and we’re hoping this investment will shorten that waitlist,” Mr Scott said.

The Minister for Family and Community Services, Pru Goward, said the budget demonstrates the NSW Liberals and Nationals commitment to assisting the most vulnerable people in our community by preventing housing stress and homelessness.

“The investment directly addresses Labor’s legacy of 43,000 people on the social housing waiting list and improves the standards of accommodation made available through increased spending on maintenance and upgrades.”

Another $19 million was also allocated to renovating affordable houses which have been vacant because of maintenance needs.

But City of Sydney Councillor Irene Doutney, who is a public housing tenant herself, is skeptical and believes the NSW Government is putting “a certain flavour” on the facts.

“There are so many people on the public service waiting list because the Howard Government cut billions of dollars to funding for NSW public housing. The number of people housed isn’t really better than it was in 2008-2009,” she said. “I don’t see a huge amount of difference from the Labor government’s budget.”