Redfern and Waterloo safer

by Emma Rugg
Redfern and Waterloo are becoming safer according to an evaluation of the area’s first Safety Plan recently released by the City of Sydney.

Launched after the 2004 Redfern riots and the controversy over the death of teenager TJ Hickey, the Redfern Waterloo Community Safety Plan aimed to address the root causes of crime and violence by ‘focusing on building and strengthening community networks’ in the hope of reshaping the area’s battered reputation.

Operating as a partnership between community groups and local and state governments, the Plan’s five action areas were: Community Strengthening, Early Intervention, Community Service and Young People, Health Drug and Alcohol Issues, Planning and Environmental Issues.

Opposite The Block ‘ the reputed centre of Redfern’s poor and dangerous image ‘ The newly constructed Redfern Community Centre stands as a proud symbol of the neighbourhood’s growth. Built as part of the Safety Plan, it hosts BBQs and other regular activities, in an effort to promote positive action over crime.

‘The Community Centre has massively contributed to crime reduction and community safety in the area’ rather than residents, it’s now transients and drop-ins who are committing the crimes,’ said a spokesperson for the Aboriginal Housing Commission, which owns The Block.

NSW Police data showed that motor vehicle theft and non-domestic assault are down in Redfern and Waterloo, and the Safety Plan reports that many people living and working in these two areas feel safer.

The evaluation also claims that while community participation in the project was strong, it wasn’t really inclusive, as meetings were usually during the day when only the elderly and unemployed could attend. It praised the input of local police, but said ‘attendance at meetings and reporting on progress in implementation by representatives from other State Agencies was mostly uneven and inconsistent.’

As the Redfern Waterloo Association still hasn’t released the evaluation of its Human Service Plan six months after deadline, the Community Safety Plan is the only data available on the nature of crime and community development in the area, and despite improvements, it stresses that there’s still a lot of work to be done.