Public housing tenants and advocates gathered outside New South Wales Parliament on World Eradicate Poverty Day, October 17, to demand genuine solutions to the housing crisis.
Speakers called for significant investment in public housing and for plans to demolish existing public housing stock to be scrapped.
Brightly coloured cut-out houses were displayed to highlight the more than 57,000 people on the public housing waiting list in NSW.
Andrew Chuter, housing activist and Friends of Erskineville treasurer, said “eradicating poverty comes about by delivering stable housing for everyone”.
He said the current government proposals are “zombie solutions” that will not end homelessness.
Public housing tenant and First Nations activist Carolyn Ienna said Labor governments are “planning to demolish hundreds of public homes”. They said plans to build social and so-called affordable housing are privatisation of public land by stealth.
Public housing tenant Julie Threadgold said that the government has failed to maintain her home. “[It] had a gas leak this year and nine days without hot water … it is cockroach infested, has filthy carpets, rubbish that isn’t collected.
“Meanwhile, the prime minister buys a multi-million dollar clifftop mansion and wants to be taken seriously when he says he’s dealing with the housing crisis?”
Karyn Brown, housing activist and Waterloo South housing tenant, who is resisting the NSW government’s demolition plans, said rents from public housing tenants should be used to maintain and build more public housing stock.
Instead, “governments gift existing stock to developers to demolish it and replace it with private housing that most people can’t afford”.
Greens Randwick councillor Philipa Veitch said councils should do more to address the crisis. “I am proposing a vacancy tax that local councils can implement against landlords who leave homes vacant.”
She said she would take the proposal for adoption at the NSW Local Council Conference in November.
Veitch told Green Left the NSW government is planning to demolish the Coral Sea Housing Estate in Maroubra. “It contains 33 public units with 90 bedrooms and they plan to build 144 new units — 50 social units and 94 affordable units.
“Residents have been told they need to move in 12 months … We need to resist this demolition,” said Veitch.
Elizabeth Elenius, from the Pyrmont Society, said Labor is proceeding with former NSW Liberal Premier Gladys Berejikilian’s Pyrmont Peninsula Place Strategy — which set a target of 8,000 new residents and 23,000 new workers in the area.
She said the plan should be revised to include construction of public housing in Pyrmont and Ultimo.
Elenius said the City of Sydney council sold a 1.3 hectare depot in Ultimo to a private developer with no plans for public or affordable housing. She added that the 36-storey Blackwattle Bay Fish Market development also did not include public housing.
Newly elected City of Sydney Greens councillor Matthew Thompson said the party would “help everyday residents campaign for public and genuine affordable housing”.
Chuter said the Paddington Society are campaigning to save Selwyn Street Boarding Houses, home to 32 vulnerable men.
A developer bought the property two years ago, and is threatening to evict the tenants and build luxury apartments. The case is in front of the Land and Environment Court, with results due on December 3.
[Hands Off Glebe are organising another public housing action on October 26 in Camperdown. Follow Action for Public Housing for more updates.]