Public housing block in Sydney will be demolished in contentious government plan

by GRACE JOHNSON

A public housing unit in Sydney’s inner city that is only 35 years old will soon be demolished as the NSW Government pushes on with controversial plans to rebuild on the site to add 26 more homes.

82 Wentworth Park Road in Glebe has been the site of much controversy in recent times. Residents and community groups are saying the building is too new to be knocked down. Architects have assisted in alternate proposals that centre on renovation rather than demolition, and that would ultimately cost less than the government’s proposal.

Renovations and building on top of the site would also see less disruption to its residents; it would avoid placing people on the state’s already long waiting list for housing.

Despite much protest and even the City of Sydney voting to endorse the community’s alternative plan, on December 13th 2023, the Local Planning Panel met to consider the Development Application (DA), which authorises the demolition and rebuild of 82 Wentworth Park Road.

The four-member panel was divided, but the chairperson’s casting vote went in the Government’s favour.

10 weeks prior in October, Denis Doherty from Hands off Glebe, along with Sydney architect Hector Abrahams, met with the LAHC experts.

The proposal created by Hector Abrahams Architects (HAA), engaged on a pro bono basis by The Glebe Society, looked to retain and renovate the existing building with 17 dwellings. Another 4-storey infill building with 17 additional dwellings would then be constructed in the rear yard area, creating a total of 34 dwellings.

HAA said their proposal would be more cost effective and faster to deliver than LAHC’s new proposal for 43 new dwellings, and would also preserve the heritage and character of Glebe.

LAHC’s proposal also involved reducing the amount of 3-bedroom dwellings, saying that of the 787 dwellings in Glebe that LAHC owns classified as a single dwelling, 28 per cent are currently under occupied.

They go on to say that based on the waitlist data produced by Department of Communities and Justice, 80 per cent of those on the priority waitlist in the Sydney LGA (including Glebe) are suitable for either a studio or 1 bedroom dwelling.

Yet evicting residents, many of which will not be able to return due to reduced 3- or 2-bedroom dwellings, means even more people are waiting for public housing. Not to mention, much of the state’s public housing is currently being left vacant, as Councillor Sylvie Ellsmore from City of Sydney in particular has called attention to.

Houses left vacant 

According to research from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released on August 29 2023, there are 2,568 dwellings not in use in the City of Sydney, making up 3.1 per cent of the total dwellings in the area.

All the while, the waitlist for social housing only grows. The latest figures from the NSW Housing Register, published on June 30 2023, show that 55,880 households in NSW are on the waitlist for social housing, 722 of which are in the Sydney allocation zone, and 1,581 from the Inner West.

Yet Housing NSW began evicting residents from the site before they even had approval for demolition plans, despite the building being in good condition. The displacement was catastrophic for many. Some of the tenants were forced to sleep rough under the nearby bridge. A few were driven over the edge by the announcement.

The community’s proposal aimed to keep the people in mind.

As Mr Doherty says, “Our, the Community’s, approach is more visionary rather the brutal eviction, demolition and rebuild a leaky building as they have done in other parts of Glebe.”

“The LAHC approach is disrespectful and stressful for vulnerable tenants while our approach is more sensitive and respectful of tenants.” 

“A miscarriage of justice”

The final decision has been described as a “miscarriage of justice”, with Mr Doherty saying the LAHC did not play fair.

Despite several reminders over the ten weeks to respond to the community proposal, LAHC waited until just four hours before the planning panel met to respond with their objections.

“It is unconscionable that the LAHC did not play fair in relation to the alternate plan for 82 Wentworth Park Road,” said Mr Doherty. 

“Instead of sending us a detailed and somewhat erroneous series of objections with time to examine them LAHC gave us just 4 hours before the planning panel met when they had over 10 weeks to give us an opinion,” he continued.

Furthermore, their report did not fully add up, he says, and the community group has mostly rejected their assessment.

Mr Doherty said, “How is possible that our scheme is more expensive than theirs when we are not demolishing and excavating the site?  Their figures do not add up and we suspect they are more concerned with serving their private contractors than with serving the people!”

Misinformation about the community’s proposal being more expensive than that of the LAHC’s has spread, seeming to justify the government’s scheme.

Mr Doherty said the community group was recently alarmed when the Sydney Morning Herald published a story on 82 Wentworth Park Road and accepted without criticism figures from the LAHC.

He explained, “They costed our scheme as more expensive than theirs even though we do not have to demolish and take away debris and excavate the site.  The cost now is $25.3 million but it has been $22, and $25 million in the recent past.”

Next steps

The decision to demolish was evidently disappointing, but campaign groups haven’t lost hope.

Mr Doherty says, “This is a setback but we intend to continue the campaign to save 82 and to convince the ALP Government in NSW to adopt the new approach to renovating instead of evicting and demolishing.”

“The next stage of the campaign is a direct appeal to Minister Rose Jackson who has the final say on this project.”