Squatters evicted from Millers Point

September 16, 2014   Nicole Hasham  


"A farce": Tayce, 27, speaks with police in Millers Point

They had stocked the kitchen with food, hauled in crate-loads of belongings and even brought their tortoiseshell cat.

But the two-month long rent-free bliss enjoyed by a group of squatters at Millers Point ended abruptly on Tuesday, as the state government pushed ahead with its plan to empty the harbourside suburb of vulnerable residents.

The small group of 20-somethings left the Argyle Place property about midday after being ordered out by police.



The Argyle Place property "is being prepared for sale", officials said. Photo: Ben Rushton/Getty Images

Banners draped from the balcony read "Millers Point Not 4 Sale" and "Communities Not Commodities".

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Tayce, a 27-year-old squatter who declined to give her last name, said the eviction was a "farce".

"I'm homeless - there are so many people on the waiting list for [public] housing and this house was empty for two years," she said.
"There is nothing wrong with the house, it's beautiful. I don't think houses should be sitting empty."
The house was connected to electricity and, despite a bit of mould, was otherwise "amazing", Tayce said.

About four squatters had occupied the terrace house after finding the back door unlocked and the property empty. Squatters are also known to be occupying other homes in the area.

Scores of properties at Millers Point are lying idle as the government embarks on a two-year program to evict public housing tenants and sell hundreds of homes.

The first four sales well exceeded price guides and netted the government $11.1 million.

The government says the homes are too expensive to maintain, and sale proceeds will be reinvested into the social housing system. However, welfare advocates question why all properties must be sold, rather than letting some elderly and long-time residents stay on in the area.

Housing groups have also called on the government to ensure the proceeds are used to build new social housing in inner Sydney areas.

Millers Point: a community under the hammer

Millers Point community spokesman Barney Gardner said the squatters evicted on Tuesday had not caused a nuisance, and should have been allowed to stay until the property was ready for sale.

"The property has been vacant for some time and will remain vacant for some time. These people ... are not damaging the property, they are just living there," he said.

"They haven't had anywhere to live and now they are being turfed out on the street again."

It is understood no charges will be laid, because the squatters left voluntarily.

Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said the vacant properties at Millers Point "should have been used to house people in need".
He said public housing residents had previously raised concerns about other squatters, however the government was only taking action now the sell-off had begun.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Family and Community Services said the Argyle Place home had been vacant since late 2011 "and is being prepared for sale".

"The government has continued to carefully monitor the safety and security of vacant Millers Point properties and any illegal occupancy or squatting will continue to be subject to action by NSW Police," she said.

RESOURCED: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/squatters-evicted-from-millers-point-20140916-10hkt8.html

NSW Government criticised for secrecy over public housing proceeds

Nicole Hasham  September 19, 2014

The NSW government has refused to tell taxpayers how it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars reaped from the Millers Point public housing sell off, despite a parliamentary inquiry expressing concern over the cloak of secrecy.
It comes amid a continuing furore over the controversial sale, which Labor MP Amanda Fazio on Thursday likened to social cleansing in Nazi Germany.

The government has collected $11.1 million from the first four property sales. A further 289 properties are yet to go under the hammer, including 79 apartments in the Sirius building at The Rocks.



Amanda Fazio

The sales program is on track to inject more than $500 million into the government's coffers, but Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton has refused to say exactly how the windfall will be spent, saying only it will be returned "back into the social housing system".

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A crossbench parliamentary inquiry into social, public and affordable housing this month found the spending detail provided by the government was inadequate.

The government says the sale will relieve taxpayers of high maintenance costs and rental subsidies, and help alleviate the long wait for public housing.

However, the absence of both economic modelling and an up-to-date public housing policy has stoked fears the proceeds will be used to fill a gaping hole in the public housing maintenance budget, rather than building much-needed new dwellings.

The inquiry's committee, dominated by conservative MPs, was "dissatisfied" that the government could not say what proportion of Millers Point and Sirius sales proceeds would be used on new housing supply.

Millers Point: a community under the hammer


It called on the government to invest the proceeds from all public housing sales into a fund dedicated to building new homes.

When selling multi-unit properties in Sydney such as the Sirius building it said the government should also require the buyer to allocate at least 10 per cent of all dwellings to social, public and affordable housing.

Figures show the present social housing waiting list of 58,000 households will blow out to at least 86,000 by 2016. The report reiterated concerns by the NSW Auditor-General last year that selling public housing to fill a budget shortfall was "not financially sustainable".

Labor MP Sophie Cotsis, a member of the committee, said offloading properties to fund a maintenance backlog was "like selling your house to pay off your credit card".

Ms Fazio said in the NSW upper house on Thursday the government had failed to produce a plan to solve the public housing crisis after more than three years in office.

She described the Millers Point sale as "a bizarre social experiment ... eradicating a whole suburb", adding "it's not much different to some of the eugenic stuff that was being practised in Germany in the 1930s".

Ms Upton said the Millers Point sale would provide "more homes for more people", describing Ms Fazio's comments as "abhorrent".

She said the government was examining the inquiry's 41 recommendations, but did not say what proportion of sale proceeds would be used to build more homes.

RESOURCED: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-government-criticised-for-secrecy-over-public-housing-proceeds-20140918-10ikc2.html