BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS
City of Sydney Greens Councillor Irene Doutney has called on the state government to significantly increase the amount of social housing stock in the City, following the announcement of the Baird Government’s Future Directions for Social Housing policy on Monday.
Clr Doutney warned that the plan will fall short on its goals if the number of city properties did not increase.
She said that social housing must be in the inner city, not just on the “outskirts” of Sydney.
Clr Doutney cited the example of the selloff of Millers Point properties as a reason for doubting the government’s commitment to inner city social housing.
The NSW government’s plan deals with both the supply and demand side of social housing, in an effort to reduce the number of people on the waiting list of 60,000 people.
Part of this plan will be to increase the private rental subsidy to 60 per cent, in a bid to keep people out of social housing.
It hopes to increase the employability of people in social housing through providing “opportunities for those people to get training, find a job and move into the private rental market”.
The Minister said the program will partner with the private sector to deliver 23,500 new and replacement dwellings.
It will also give 35 per cent of social housing to community providers.
“We are looking to the innovation of the private and non-government sectors to redevelop old public housing estates into mixed communities which will put thousands of people in social housing on a better path,” Mr Hazzard said in a statement.
But Clr Doutney said she was concerned with the transfer of property to the private sector.
“I am deeply concerned that the sale of public housing assets to the private sector places public housing tenants in a vulnerable position. The job of developers is to maximise their profits. We need strong safeguards in place to ensure that
the number of public housing units delivered are not reduced in number or size through the planning process.”
“I am enthusiastic about the commitment to removing disincentives for public housing tenants to work. However, we have seen in the past the Liberal/National Party’s ideological commitment to punishing those who are unable to find work.
Their emphasis on supporting tenants to transition out of public housing is clearly focused on single mothers. I sincerely hope these processes are government by evidence based policy and not trumped by ideology.”
“I want to see a stronger focus from this Government on inner city public and affordable housing. This strategy demonstrates that the Government understands the risks of concentrating disadvantage in one area. If they are really serious about this they must ensure that disadvantaged people are supported to live in the inner city and not just the outskirts on Sydney.”
