“There’s no excuse”: government leaves high numbers of homes vacant during a housing crisis

by GRACE JOHNSON

The City of Sydney is stepping up its handling of the housing crisis, signalling the high number of vacant homes during a council meeting on Monday night and pledging to take action.

As a result of the successful motion, Lord Mayor Clover Moore will write to the Housing and Homelessness Minister, Rose Jackson, expressing concern and apply pressure for urgent intervention.

The motion, put forward by Councillor Sylvie Ellsmore, highlighted research by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released on 29 August 2023. Using electricity data to determine houses that go for extended periods without use, the research found that 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 local government area (LGA).

Alarmingly, high numbers of vacant dwellings are occurring simultaneously with soaring numbers of household applicants for social housing. The latest figures from the NSW Housing Register, published on 30 June 2023, show that 55,880 households in NSW are on the waitlist for social housing, 722 of which are in the Sydney allocation zone, 1,081 from the eastern suburbs, 1,581 from the Inner West, and a staggering 2,053 from the northern suburbs, the third highest in NSW.

Speaking to City Hub, Councillor Ellsmore said, “more and most public housing is being left vacant that people could be living in by now, and they’re basically not putting tenants in this housing. And some of it is good-quality housing that doesn’t even need renovation.”

Development plans still awaiting approval, residents evicted anyway

State government recently evicted all but two residents at 82 Wentworth Park Road in Glebe, despite having no approval to develop the building. Many of the evicted residents have been left stranded and are now sleeping rough.

 “The government has kicked everybody out of those buildings, some of which got a new coat of paint and new carpet recently, all because they plan to develop it at some point in the future. In a couple of years. They don’t have the approval to do that, but they kicked out everybody in advance anyway.”

 “There’s no excuse. They certainly shouldn’t be leaving the properties vacant because they might, at some point in the future, feel like developing the property. That’s obscene in the housing crisis.”

Sydney has also seen increases in properties being redeveloped for larger wealthy residences, decreasing the number of available dwellings. Other houses stand empty for much of the year as vacation homes or short-rental properties.

Call for more transparency from the Lord Mayor

Councillor Linda Scott weighed in on the number of vacant dwellings and the lack of communication from the Lord Mayor, saying “I have been calling on the Lord Mayor to do more on affordable housing, which is especially critical in our cost-of-living crisis.” 

“There are currently at least nine City-owned residential properties standing vacant, waiting for refurbishment – for as long as four years.  Meanwhile none of the properties owned by the City are leased to affordable and social housing tenants.”

“The community deserves more transparency from the Lord Mayor about how City properties are used – and when they’re left standing vacant.”

“It’s time for the Lord Mayor to step up so the City can do more to deliver affordable housing.”

Council also passed a motion on Monday night to investigate the possible implementation of planning controls to prevent a net reduction in dwellings for any new housing developments.

Councillor Yvonne Weldon AM also expressed her support: “I’m fully supportive of the motion to establish no net dwelling loss provisions.”