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| Millers Point public housing residents |
Three separate community organisations have banded together to form the Millers Point Community Defence Group, which will hold its first public meeting on Saturday. One of the organisers of the campaign, John McInerney, said the sell-off would result in “the destruction of an existing community”.
“The government says their core business is not housing. But surely their core business must be communities. If they’re not about building and sustaining communities, then what are they about?”
Community service minister Pru Goward on Wednesday announced the decision to sell 293 public housing units at Millers Point, the Rocks and Gloucester Street within two years, saying the cost of rent subsidies and property maintenance had become too high.
“I cannot look taxpayers in NSW in the eye, I cannot look other public housing tenants in the eye and I cannot look the 57,000 people on the waiting list in the eye when we preside over such an unfair distribution of subsidies,” Goward said.
Goward acknowledged that the “high potential sales value” of the properties was a factor in the sell-off, which will see more than 400 residents relocated. The proceeds will be reinvested into the social housing system.
Opponents of the plan distributed flyers to all public-housing residents in the area on Thursday afternoon, advising them: “In the coming days efforts will be made to move the residents out one by one. When you are approached, you will be asked to have an interview to discuss your preferences for moving. We feel strongly that no resident should agree to an interview until we have legal advice on how to proceed.”
McInerney acknowledged that “a small number” of the public-housing properties were expensive to maintain, and would be better off in private hands. “But that’s only a percentage. There is a large number of quite reasonable low-income type housing which was built in the early 1900s, which needs just minimal maintenance to remain social housing.
“And the Sirius building is even less expensive. It was built in the 1970s, it’s a modern building,” he said.
“The objective should be to maintain a mixed community of private and public housing, and not cause a complete destruction of the existing community.”
The campaign says they’ve been promised support by the independent member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, the Maritime Union of Australia, the NSW branch of the Australian Labor Party and the Greens.
The Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, is expected to speak at the public meeting on Saturday.
Writing for Guardian Australia, Moore described the decision to move out residents, some of whom have lived in the area for decades, as “tantamount to social cleansing”.
“The Millers Point community survived the plague, the depression and war. It is shameful that it is government that will destroy this proud and strong neighbourhood.”
Reference source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/20/millers-point-public-housing-residents-campaign-nsw-sell-off
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