The O’Farrell government has decided to rob from the poor to give to the rich.
In a city with a growing problem of housing affordability, Wednesday’s decision to sell off 293 homes in Millers Point is a heavy blow – and not just to the 400 plus residents who will be evicted.
One of the blocks of apartments being sold was built in the 1980s. It no more needs to be sold for high-income housing than any of the other apartment blocks in metropolitan Sydney where people in social housing homes live.
All social housing tenants in inner-city properties are now put on notice. If the value of your home goes up, the government is going to put you out of your home when there’s a dollar to be made.
This is 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.
For most of the 20th century, state governments and their bureaucracies have purposely neglected the maintenance of these historic homes– proving to be irresponsible and uncaring landlords.
The former NSW Labor government took that neglect further and began using 99-year leases to put social housing in private hands.
Now the current government says the neglect is so bad, and the expense to maintain homes in Millers Point is so great, that it’s time to sell.
In the property development business this tactic is known as “demolition by neglect”, and it’s shocking to see successive governments resort to these tactics.
Sixty properties were left to deteriorate without tenants in Millers Point, despite a desperate need for housing – there are 55,000 people on the waiting list for social housing in NSW.
Evicting 400 people with no clear plan to create new homes for them just adds strain to an already overburdened system.
The fate of Millers Point should give all Sydneysiders pause for thought. Do we want to live in a city that cannot make space for people on low incomes?
We need more social and affordable housing in the inner-city, not less, or Sydney’s famous egalitarianism will be destroyed. The inner-city will become an enclave for the wealthy.
New models are needed to preserve and increase social and affordable housing. In the UK, housing estates have been successfully redeveloped using a mix of social, affordable and private housing, private housing providing cross-subsidies for the social and affordable housing.
Affordable housing schemes in Greater London deliver up to 50% new dwellings, whereas urban renewal schemes in inner Sydney rarely achieve even three per cent.
It is vital the government retain social housing in the inner city, particularly in places like Millers Point, where there are established, supportive and well-serviced communities.
A city that turns into nothing more than an enclave for the wealthiest people might seem rich in dollars, but it would be poor in every other way.
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