Artists’ pointed remarks

Cara Martinez · Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The Point is… exhibition told a compelling story of Millers Point in the universally applicable context of housing, home and community. Jane Bennett’s three oil paintings, “Sirius”, “This is My Home” and “Merriman Street”, along with Reg Mombassa’s giclée print “The Opera House from Dawes Point” situated the exhibition in its geographical context, leading the visitor straight into the community.

“No Surrender” Image: Greg Mombassa

Alison Alder’s screen-print on rice paper, “Get Out Quick”, was a reworking of the eviction letter received on March 19, 2014, placing the viewer in the position of a resident receiving the letter. Tamara Dean’s work “Barney Gardner” documents a man born and raised in Millers Point, in the intimate space of his home. His family were wharf workers and he is now facing eviction from home and community.
Empathy informed Peque’s drawing “Not 4 Sale” which, in an analogy of heart and home, depicted a snail with a Millers Point Terrace as its shell/home. Alison Alder’s “Real Estate” references housing lotto and Nikki Easterbrook’s site specific installation and photographic work “For[ced] Sale” was a playful and serious statement on home and community as commodity.
Co-curator Paddi O’Leary writes: “It was important to highlight what is happening in Millers Point – but also beyond us.” Mini Graff depicts Millers Point as the epicentre of a mass sell-off with a domino effect in “Pipped at the Post – Dominoes”.
The community was galvanised into action and gathered its supporters. Ian Milliss’ artwork “We. Together. Then. – We. Together. Now.” placed the current struggle squarely in a historical context, reminding the viewer that “at the heart of the Green Ban movement was the idea that the city is a commons, a cultural artefact created and owned by all the individuals and communities that have lived in it and not … the property of developers or governments who momentarily grab control of bits of it”.
Reg Mombassa’s work “No Surrender” was symbolic of the enduring struggle against “ruthless wealth and power”. Mombassa states: “Removing a thriving, long-standing community of working people because their real estate is now coveted by the wealthy is plainly the wrong thing to do.” Sally Cushing subtly questions the morality of the sell-off through her abstract painting “Reading Blake (and thinking about James Packer’s Soul)”.
Jo Holder adds: “Millers Point has a history of significant counterpoints between the dissident voice, the resistant voice and the government and the developers.” This history and the heritage aspect of the living Millers Point community was raised by Ruark Lewis’ work “Housing the Seafaring Nation”, in collaboration with Holder. “I Heart ICAC” by Sarah Goffman with the Be Useful Group raised the question of government corruption and dodgy deals behind the sell-off (B.U.G. includes Raquel Ormella, Madeleine Kelly, Sarah Goffman and Bec Dean).
Deborah Kelly’s work “My Sydney Summer” was a photomontage of various protest marches and vigils that the artist had attended around the world, presented in one large banner that visitors interacted with. Kelly states: “I loved how people used it [as a backdrop] to create dynamic and passionate social movement selfies; a solidarity trompe l’oeil at last.”
Paddi O’Leary’s three collages of photographs and flyers amounted to the community’s actions with themes of Community Spirit, Resistance, Protest and Solidarity. Blue Lucine’s preview of “Forced Out” places the viewer alongside the locals throughout the struggle, inviting a “personal look inside the lives of those at the heart of the sale”. Margaret Bishop and John Dunn’s work “Eighteen Months” encompassed photo-documentation and Facebook posts by John, with artwork and intricate handmade banners by Margaret in a collection documenting the embrace of community and ongoing support.
The art in this exhibition was not for and of itself, but rather art for social context, art for community, art as documentation, art for activism, art as activism. Our main concern was that the art was relevant and meaningful to both the community and the broader and ongoing contexts. It was important to keep it real, as it were, and looking back on it, we achieved that.

Cara Martinez was co-curator (with Paddi O’Leary) of The Point Is … exhibition at 107 Projects in Redfern, October 7-11, 2015. The keynote speech at the opening was given by Eva Cox AO, with live entertainment by Choir Rocks & Jacinta Tobin.
107projects.org

Category: Arts, Review, vertical image · Tags: Millers Point sell-off

#SAVEMILLERSPOINT

RESOURCED: http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/artists-pointed-remarks/#.Vlbq16ShfIU

Residents in squabble over minimal Millers Point availability

            

Posted November 25, 2015 by Marcus Braid & filed under City News.

           

BY LUCAS BAIRD

 

The NSW government’s decision to remove people from public housing in Millers Point has been dubbed “elder abuse” by academic Eva Cox.
This month, the government announced that 28 units would be made available to the estimated 90 remaining residents living in the suburb.
The move follows the government announcement last year that the suburb would be sold off to fund social housing further from the city centre.
Sociologist, Eva Cox, said that the government was exhibiting a form of elder abuse by opting to remove many elderly residents from public housing in Miller’s Point.
“If you have 80 year olds who have lived in the area for all their lives, are third generation of living in the area, elder abuse will become an issue,” Ms Cox said.
Ms Cox attributed this to the money-first attitude taken up by the state government.

“If we are serious about understanding communities, if we are serious about understanding people, then the idea that you can just push poor people out because they happen to live in houses that have been around a long time and have increased in value is very brutal.”

Myra Demetrio’s situation is one of 90 residents fighting for 28 apartments.

Ms Demetrio recently had to move into a more accessible home but now she is in danger of losing it.

She told City Hub she isn’t confident of what could happen if she doesn’t get offered one of the apartments

“I think they have a jolly hide to throw us out and say that they will give us this and this when there are 6000 people on the waiting list.” Ms Demetrio said

“I know someone who had to wait 27 years for a place.”

The Millers Point community is currently fighting for the creation of more public housing in the area to help those like Ms Demetrio to stay in the community.

The Millers Point, Dawes Point and the Rocks Public Housing Tenants group member, Barney Gardner, asserted that more than half of the residents could stay if the government made use of the available non-heritage housing in the area.

“These [apartments] would get us up to the 52 or 54 unit mark.”: Mr Gardner said.

“We would only require between 15 and 20 heritage classified two bedroom units, and that would secure everyone who wants to stay here.”

Mr Gardner explained that his group would do whatever it could to help the tenants

“We have the legal people from Redfern Legal and as a group we will sit down in the interview with them [the tenants].”

“We are there if they need it”: he said.

Millers Point residents are also worried about how this mass removal will affect the community.

“They [community members] will not get what they want, there will be many unhappy people and there will be social and further disruption of the Millers Point Community.” Local resident John McInerney told City Hub.

Support from the general public has been limited for the Millers Point community.

Ms Cox attributed this to people being unsure of what to do rather than a lack of care.

“The whole thing is pushed in a way that makes it very difficult to know what to do,”Ms Cox said.

“I think there is a lot of sympathy for the fact that they are ruining a community which has been there forever.”

The residents expect to receive the offers for limited housing in mid-January.

RESOURCED: http://www.altmedia.net.au/residents-in-squabble-over-minimal-millers-point-availability/112132 

NSW Government: you can do better than this!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

 

Ninety public housing tenants remaining in Millers Point received letters on Monday, 16 November 2015, with an offer to stay in the historic suburb by swapping their current homes for other non-heritage apartments: 24 of which are one bedroom properties, one is a two bedroom property and three are three bedroom properties. But there is a catch. Altogether only 28 apartments are on offer. Not everyone can stay. 'It's Sophie's choice,' said Chris Hinkley of the Millers Point community working party, and a resident for 44 years. The letter states that residents not relocated to one of the 28 properties will be moved out of Millers Point. Minister for Social Housing Brad Hazzard said it was a 'massive shift for the government', which had previously declared all tenants would be evicted and their public housing homes sold. Read more here.

However, the letter to residents states that the Government is proposing to 'defer', rather than 'withdraw', the sale of these properties. This poses the question as to the Government's future intentions. Are these properties to become part of a land bank with a view to their future sale?  What security of tenure does this provide to those residents who move in?

On 2 September 2015 the General Purpose Standing Committee No. 2. of the NSW Legislative Council called for submissions to its 'Inquiry into elder abuse in New South Wales'. Submissions closed on Sunday, 15 November 2015. The Tenants' Union lodged a submission.  It argued that, although elder abuse is generally between two individuals of unequal power where there is an expectation of trust, elder abuse also may be a systemic problem, with a government through its policies also being the instigator of such abuse. And it asserted that this is what is happening at Millers Point. It asked that the final report of the Standing Committee include a recommendation that the NSW Government allow remaining older residents of Millers Point to age-in-place in their current housing. Submissions received by the Standing Committee cannot be published unless authorised by it.

NSW Government: you can do better than offer just 28 apartments to the remaining 90 tenants! At Millers Point you coveted your neighbours house (read more here). And you made a motzer (read more here)! By the Minister's own admission, the cottages in Millers Point have been a 'goldmine' for the government, such as 18-20 Munn Street which recently sold for $5.5 million.
 

NSW Government: give the remaining older residents a proper choice, not 'Sophie's choice' ... and this includes aging-in-place in their current housing. Then perhaps sell some of their houses if this remains your plan. But why not retain some of the units within the Sirius Building and workers cottages to maintain a semblance of a social mix ... so that Millers Point does not become an enclave for the wealthy?
 

This needs to happen now, because the New South Wales Government appears to be clearing the decks in Millers Point and removing the final barriers for obtaining vacant possession of all the remaining properties. On top of the announcement by Minister for Social Housing Brad Hazzard, offering some residents the right to stay in two rows of apartments, two other events have just occurred, perhaps not coincidental. Firstly, Clause 16 (1) of the Residential Tenancies Regulation 2010 was amended on 30 October 2015 to exclude heritage properties owned by New South Wales Land and Housing Corporation and the Aboriginal Housing Office from heritage properties exempted from the operation of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010. Read more here. Secondly, nine of the remaining tenancies in Millers Point are managed by a real estate agent. And a number, if not all of these, were issued with 90-day 'no-grounds' notices of termination at the beginning of last week on the instructions of the New South Wales Land and Housing Corporation. 

http://tunswblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/nsw-government-you-can-do-better-than.html 

Re-opening the case of the lost public housing tenancies

Monday, November 16, 2015

Two years ago, as the historic suburb of Millers Point was finally being eyed off by a state government desperate for revenue, the Tenants Union noticed that due to that very history, many of the properties being eyed off were exempt from the Residential Tenancies Act, and from the jurisdiction of the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Last week, as reports of the first official notices of termination for Millers Point residents come in, we discovered that Housing has closed that exemption- making the job of removing residents somewhat easier.

You can read more about the exemption in the original blog post, and its implications in a Shelter NSW briefing paper- both of which will now require some amendment to be current, but are still very good documents of the situation at the time.

Back then, we alerted Housing NSW and their legal team to this exemption and they were unaware of the issue. We figured it created as many problems as it solved for the residents, and would have increased the cost of any disputes beyond the reach of most of the people affected- except for HNSW's legal team.

That said, we are disappointed this change came without notice or consultation from FACS Housing. If not for the vigilant eyes of tenant advocates, residents of these properties may not have seen the change before relying on the regulation as it had been until only a few days ago. Government should be open and transparent in its dealings, particularly when it comes to the dealing of land. Changing the legal status of hundreds of vulnerable people is not something that should happen in the dark, tucked away down the back of the Government Gazette.

Millers Point residents offered 28 apartments and a chance to stay in their community

November 18, 2015  Heather McNab

• Comedian Russell Brand visits Millers Point
• Heritage fears over Millers Point home renovations
• Reg Mombassa stands up for Millers Point residents

PUBLIC housing tenants have welcomed a ‘massive shift’ in government policy which will offer 28 apartments to the area’s most vulnerable residents.

“I very much hope it’s the first step of many,” said Friends of Millers Point chair John Dunn.
As foreshadowed by Central Sydney in September, NSW Minister for Social Housing Brad Hazzard offered an olive branch to residents in a deal on Saturday, encouraging the most vulnerable in the community to apply for the spots.
More than 75 per cent of the suburb’s 400 tenants have already been relocated to other suburbs.

Barney Gardner, Kelli Haynes and John Dunn hope to secure several more premises for Millers Point tenants. Picture: John Appleyard

The remaining 90 or so residents still living in the area have four weeks to apply for an apartment within one of two buildings on Argyle Place and Kent St.
Mr Dunn said the apartments were a “great concession” by the government but he hoped it was a sign of things to come.











“It’s a way of keeping the viable core of the community together,” he said.
“I very much hope it’s the first step of many ... I look forward to working with the minister and government towards a solution to save this community,” Mr Dunn said.
Formal letters were sent to residents on Monday, explaining the application process to secure one of the 24 one-bedroom, one two-bedroom, and three three-bedroom apartments.
Millers Point resident and convener of the public housing tenants community group Barney Gardner said he had identified two other non-heritage buildings which could also house tenants.

Millers Point’s harbourside location means its public housing terraces have managed to secure multi-million dollar prices at auction. Picture: Toby Zerna

He identified 24 apartments on the corner of Merriman St and Bettington St, opposite the Hotel Palisade, and another next to the Langhams International Hotel.
“What we don’t understand is why people were pressured to leave when the last tenant left six months ago and they’re empty,” Mr Gardner said.
“Our crime is that we live to close to the city. It’s been a housing commission place for over 100 years. The government is saying it’s OK ... to destroy this community that’s existed for so long.”

Some of the public housing that has been sold for millions of dollars in Millers Point.

Mr Gardner said tactics used to convince tenants to leave had been “manipulative”, and the government had let public housing run down in order to present any move as appealing to long-time residents.

“They have new carpets, they’re fresh and clean and renovated ... there’s been a lot of pressure and intimidation,” Mr Gardner said.
He said he was determined to keep fighting, even if he was the last one to leave the area.
Mr Hazzard said there was “no perfect answer” to the government’s approach to public housing.
“The NSW Government recognises that it can be daunting for some residents to move out of Millers Point and away from their local support network (but) the Government has the overwhelming pressure of 60,000 people waiting for public housing,” he said.

Millers Point terraces have proved popular on the open market.

Proceeds from the Millers Point sale are expected to exceed $500 million, which will be used to build more than 1500 new dwellings in Sydney and regional NSW.
Friends of Millers Point convener Kelli Haynes said the government was choosing a shortsighted solution which stripped the community of it’s value.
“It’s a waste of public funds to treat social housing as just shelter ... if you have an inclusive community which supports the vulnerable then there will be people not relying on support services,” Ms Haynes said.
“If we move people out of Millers Point then the same argument could be made for Vaucluse or Woollahra — are we saying that we can’t have social housing in wealthy areas?
“All we’re doing if we keep going down this line is pushing the vulnerable to the outskirts.”

Argyle St at Millers Point, pictured in 1906. Source: Flickr

Millers Point descendant Patricia faces the hardest choice

  Kirsty Needham November 15, 2015


Millers Point resident Patricia Tiedeman, 72, outside her home at Dalgety Terrace. She has lived her entire life in Millers Point. Photo: Dallas Kilponen

                                                               
Five generations of Patricia Tiedeman's family have lived in Millers Point, but now it comes down to this choice.
 

Does Ms Tiedeman, 72, a descendant of the maritime families that "built Australia", accept a government offer to stay in the historic suburb by swapping her home overlooking Sydney Harbour for a cramped one-bedroom apartment?

A letter will arrive on Monday offering the deal to the 90 public housing tenants remaining in Millers Point.


The apartments in Millers Point where long term public housing residents will be allowed to stay, as their historic terrace homes are sold for millions. Photo: Dallas Kilponnen

                               

Minister for Social Housing Brad Hazzard said it was a "massive shift for the government", which had previously declared all tenants would be evicted and their public housing homes sold.

But there is a catch. Only 28 apartments are on offer. Not everyone can stay.

The letter will suggest the most vulnerable – the elderly and unwell – apply. They have four weeks.
"It's Sophie's choice," said Chris Hinkley of the Millers Point community working party, and a resident for 44 years.

"It's bloody unfair," said Ms Tiedeman on Saturday.

"It won't please everyone," Mr Hazzard said. "But its a massive shift for government, and we are trying to find a balance."

He said the sandstone cottages in Millers Point were a "goldmine" for the government, which needed money to buy more public housing in cheaper suburbs to reduce a 60,000-person waiting list.

But Mr Hazzard said he was persuaded, over scones and cream in residents' homes, by their argument that it would be "a huge challenge" for the elderly to move out of the area.

The 28 units to be quarantined from the sale were built in the 1990s, so have no heritage value and little appeal to well-heeled buyers who have been paying up to $5.5 million for the larger terrace houses.

Residents were told of the government offer at a community meeting on Saturday.

Mary Vo, 76, broke down in tears afterwards. "I can't move. I am very unwell," said the widow.
Mr Hinkley said moving to the tiny units on the corner of Argyle and Kent streets would bring relief from stress for some residents.

Seventy five per cent of the residents have already been relocated, as the sale of their former homes fetched $100 million this year.

"Property values have exceeded expectations and that has helped us in making this decision," said Mr Hazzard. "We are achieving the targets and the money raised to build 1500 homes in other areas. It is allowing us to be flexible."

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said keeping the units was a "good step".

"The minister's approach has been one of compassion, but more properties are needed to ensure the most vulnerable tenants can age in place, in their community," he said.

Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore said: "I appreciate the efforts that Minister Hazzard has made to persuade Treasury to not sell these 28 properties, but we are still losing too many homes for social housing tenants in Millers Point."

Ms Tiedeman remembers swimming in the harbour off the metal wharf as a child as the boats came in, and said the splashing scared off the sharks.

Her father worked for the Maritime Services Board, which provided the Millers Point homes for its workers, in a garage opposite her Dalgety Terrace home.

The garage was knocked down to make way for glitzy apartments with million-dollar views a few years ago. She said the new residents don't stop in the street to say hello.

"I came here with nothing and I will leave with nothing," she said, shaking her head at the $10-a-schooner prices at the newly reopened Hotel Palisade around the corner.

As a young girl dating, she recalled beaus would offer her the taxi fare rather than offer to walk her home to Millers Point, fearful of its reputation.

But she said she always felt safe, because she could knock on any door and there would be help.
 RESOURCED: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/millers-point-descendant-patricia-faces-the-hardest-choice-20151114-gkz2vh.html#ixzz3rVg6OL3N

Picnic turns ‘heavy-handed’ at Barangaroo

Posted November 4, 2015 by Marcus Braid

BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS

 

Campaigners trying to save Millers Point from privatisation at Barangaroo said 12 guards “descended” on them last Saturday November 1 at a picnic opening of the site.
The campaigners were told they were not allowed to write on the footpath, or distribute their paper planes to passers-by.
According to the Barangaroo website, the series of Sunday picnics “celebrates a different theme – stone, sea and sky – to honour the history of the place, its people and their aspirations”.
But this apparently does not include the history of the nearby Millers Point residents.
November’s month was the celebration of ‘sky’. The Millers Point campaigners chose to post planes with messages written on them.
“Celebrate the Sky; Make a Sky Plane: Aim High in the Sky: Save the Millers Point Community,” read the planes.
“Soon half a dozen security officers descended upon us. We were not to hand out material outside Barangaroo, and we were not to chalk the word ‘Community’ outside Barangaroo” Save Millers Point posted on its Facebook page.
“Head of security for Barangaroo said we had to get permission from the state government before handing out information or paper planes outside Barangaroo, where the signs say ‪#‎HelloNeighbour. Who are these signs for?”
John Donne told City Hub that he found the security “heavy-handed”.
“He collected names, and then he put them into his system.”
Mr Donne said that he did not understand why it would be against the rules to distribute the paper planes on the footpath, outside the gates of the Barangaroo Park.
“To me, I thought we were getting on alright with Barangaroo.”
“They made sure there was no more chalk being put on the footpath, and then they sent out the young cleaner out to sponge it off,” he said.
Margaret Bishop, who was amongst the campaigners said that it was strange there were so many security personnel.
“We are out on the footpath, there must have been something up because there was quite a lot of security around.”
She said that she loved the development of the parkland, and despite last weekend’s controversy, the campaigners had a good working relationship with the park.
“We love the reserve, we think it is beautiful, and involving the arts is wonderful. We’re not a threat to them, we’re giving out little planes, and trying to get people to sign petition, we got a really fabulous response from general public,” she said.
“We try and do things in a light hearted way. We were doing it with a lovely smile.”

RESOURCED: http://www.altmedia.net.au/picnic-turns-heavy-handed-at-barangaroo/111573