In March 2014, the NSW Government announced that it proposed to sell 293 properties in Millers Point, Gloucester Street and the Sirius building in The Rocks as part of a social housing divestment plan to provide an upfront cash injection to the Land and Housing Corporation. The government identified the reasons for sale as being ‘the high cost of maintenance, significant investment required to improve properties to an acceptable standard, and high potential sale values.’
SGS Economics and Planning prepared an independent report at the invitation of the Miller’s Point Community Group to review the government’s plan. The report uses a cost benefit analysis framework to argue that a more strategic approach to social housing properties in Millers Point and the Rocks may result in a better economic and social outcomes for NSW as a whole.
SGS suggests retaining a mixed community by providing a range of private, affordable, social and aged care housing by retaining at least some social housing in the area.
Failing to provide opportunities for people on lower incomes to live in well-serviced, accessible and job-rich areas, like inner Sydney, has an impact on the city’s overall productivity and global competitiveness.
Although a mixed community will provide less cash upfront for the Land and Housing Corporation, the report argues it will have improved outcomes for NSW as a whole. These include:
- Enabling workers on lower incomes to live closer to employment opportunities. This allows them to access a deeper jobs pool within community distance and more easily improve their skills.
- Making it easier for firms in the inner city to fill lower paid positions, such as cleaners and childcare workers
- Providing housing for ‘key workers’ essential to the city’s functioning, such as police, nurses and teachers, which could have an effect on the tourism, hospitality and education sectors.
- Addressing the mismatch between the locations of cheaper housing and employment in Sydney, which affects lower income families, especially women.
SGS’s report contains a number of recommendations for an alternative approach to social housing in the inner city:
- Maintaining some, rather than all, social housing in the area. The most appropriate properties to retain will be those with low maintenance costs that are purpose-built as social housing.
- Replace all lost social housing stock within the inner city area, rather than relocating it to areas with poor services and accessibility.
- Invest in a purpose-built facility to house elderly long-term residents of the area to allow these residents to age in place and maintain their links to the community.
- Increase the amount of affordable housing in the area to cater for lower-income workers essential to the city’s function.
- Offer long term leases to the market, rather than selling properties outright. This will allow the NSW government to keep their options open about how to use the properties in the future.
For more information contact Patrick Fensham, National Leader for Urban and Regional Planning.
SEE FULL REPORTS: http://www.sgsep.com.au/assets/Millers-Point-Final-Report.pdf
RESOURCED: http://www.sgsep.com.au/news/an-alternative-way-forward-for-social-housing-in-millers-point-and-the-rocks-/
