Public Housing research highlights health impacts of sell-off
Image: "There was no guarantee the private owners buying in were going to be better than people currently living there."
Photo Caption : Local MCs NJE and Untaymable entertain the crowd at Community Launch of the Study.
By Annette Maguire
The suburb of Macquarie Fields made national headlines for weeks in 2005, when a high-speed police pursuit of local youths in a stolen vehicle ended in the deaths of two of the boys.
Over following days, members of the community clashed with police, who enforced a “lockdown” of the housing estate area.
In 2008, Housing NSW moved to implement a sell-off of many homes in the estate to private buyers.
The sales program was meant to “strengthen the community” by implementing a mix of public and private housing, according to a Housing NSW statement.
Concerns have arisen about the effects of the sell-off on people’s lives in the community.
This week Macarthur Housing Coalition, a residents’ advocacy group, released a comprehensive study into the health impacts of the sales program.
The study found that 59 per cent of residents surveyed had experienced some health and wellbeing effects from the sales program, in the form of stress, anxiety and worry.
Of these, 94 per cent reported that these feelings were a result of uncertainty about the future.
“Residents who reported health impacts were more likely to be older, longer-term residents who had strong connections to the community and local area,” said Colleen Lux, Senior Research Associate with Judith Stubbs and Associates, who co-ordinated the research.
The study also found that attitudes about living in Macquarie Fields were different to media perceptions.
Of the residents surveyed, 74 per cent felt positively about living in Macquarie Fields estate, primarily for reasons of connection to community, having good neighbours, and its location.
A resident of Macquarie Fields for 33 years and a member of Macarthur Housing Coalition, Barry Crossley, said there was no guarantee the private owners buying in were going to be better than people currently living there.
“The idea that selling the area will make it better, that’s questionable,” Mr Crossley said.
Local resident Peter Butler said there were a lot of strengths in the estate community .
“In many ways there is more communication and support amongst local people than there are in other parts of society,” Mr Butler said.
“And yet they are down on us.”
The study is being distributed widely to universities, community agencies and government departments.
The Macarthur Housing Coalition will use this evidence to support its call for no-one to be moved against their will.
