Defend public housing rally calls on government to keep housing in public hands

By HENRIQUE MONTEIRO

“Shame” was one the words most used by the public housing advocates from inner-city suburbs when speaking at a rally to defend Sydney’s public housing.

Organised by housing advocacy group Action for Public Housing, the rally was attended by NSW Shadow minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson, Greens MP for Newtown and housing spokesperson Jenny Leong, Socialist Alliance candidate and LGBTIQ+ activist Rachel Evans, and NSW upper house independent candidate Elizabeth Farrelly.

Speakers expressed frustration at the government’s sell-off of private land and redevelopment of large blocks of public housing, most of which is being turned into private high-density housing.

“This is not a new crisis” Jenny Leong said to the crowd.

“This… has been an issue in successive governments in New South Wales.”

Labor’s Housing Minister Rose Jackson affirmed Labor’s commitment to stopping the sell-off of public housing, saying that if re-elected Labor will abolish the Land and Housing Corporation and the Department of Communities and Justice, which currently handles all administration of public and social housing, including relocation.

“We are in a housing crisis. Labor acknowledges that things have to change,” Jackson said.

“The government shouldn’t be the scummiest landlords in the state… brutalising and dehumanising public housing residents daily.”

Over 51,000 people waiting for a home in NSW

While the government says that public housing redevelopment is happening to build new homes in NSW, in the process of redeveloping suburbs such as Waterloo and Eveleigh, more than 2,000 residents will be evicted and relocated from the Waterloo Estate public housing blocks alone.

Elizabeth Farrelly spoke on the changing demographics of inner-city Sydney, and the loss of strong communities when public housing is demolished.

“Once you throw all those people to the far suburbs, [community] vanishes. It’s destroyed and it can’t be rebuilt” she said.

The public housing waiting list in NSW currently has over 51,000 people according to DCJ figures. Only just over 6500 of these applicants are considered “priority applicants”.

John Engeler, CEO of Shelter NSW, says that the amount of available social and public housing “is not keeping up with population growth or demand”.

The DCJ reports that wait times for 1,2 and 3 bedroom homes are between 5-10 years. Engeler said that waiting for public housing is a “stressful and expensive” experience.

“There is a deep and harmful housing crisis being felt across right across Sydney with many low-middle income households, but especially renters paying too much for housing and dealing with the threat of eviction,” he said.

Shelter NSW is urging whichever party will form government after the March election to commit to “returning the social housing safety net to at least 5% across the state and 10% by 2040”.

Speakers call for public housing to remain public

MC of the event Máire Sheehan, former Leichhardt Mayor and A4PH and Better Planning Network spokesperson, called on the government to keep public housing out of the hands of private developers.

“Keep public housing under public management. Do not contract it out and reverse the outsourcing to community housing companies,” she said.

With an intention to mix public housing with private home ownership through the Community Plus program, the controversial $22 billion renewal of NSW Government’s social housing portfolio leaves only one thing clear to the residents of the suburbs: more private houses, increasing regional prices and the chipping away of Sydney’s much needed public housing.

Speakers at the rally also included members of the Action for Public Housing organization, Hands Off Glebe and Waterloo Public Housing Action Group Carolyn Ienna and Karyn Brown, member of the management committee for the CFMMEU construction Howard Byrnes, Blue Mountains housing spokesperson Sue Wildman and Wiradjuri cultural leader and youth ambassador Uncle Dave Bell.