Resident refuses to move as government sells off Sydney public housing at Millers, Dawes Points

Just don't call Flo Seckold a "houso".

The 80-year-old resident of Argyle Place, Dawes Point, was born in one of 293 properties that the NSW government has started to sell – and that is within cooee of the first six to go on the market this week. If she gets her way, Mrs Seckold will die in one of the oldest houses in one of Sydney's oldest suburbs. Mrs Seckold, a widow and the daughter of maritime workers, is angry at how public housing tenants in the area have been depicted as multi-generation al welfare bludgers. Most moved to the area as tenants of Maritime NSW, which built the cottages to house workers on the docks and ships.

"I am not going," Mrs Seckold said, adding the history of the area was not being told. "We have paid our way, we are not housos. I find that very objectionable. If you are talking about us, refer to us as department of Housing tenants – not housos." Advertisement Some of the properties are expected to sell for more than $3 million.

On Saturday, an open house for a six-year-old property – a few doors down from the government-owned 86 Windmill Street that will go on the market in days – was doing a brisk business.

Agents from McGrath said they expected the four-bedroom terrace house wouldsell for more than $2 million.

Next door to 86, new tenants paying $1475 a week were moving in to a 2½ bedroom renovated terrace. "I Iove the area, I love the history, the pathways, the rocks, and the access to the city," said James Fitzpatrick who had fallen in love with the house and moved in within two days of seeing it.

Public housing tenants pay about 25 per cent of their incomes in rent. For example, somebody on a full aged pension, which many residents receive, will pay about $90 a week for an unrenovated version of Mr Fitzpatrick's home. Public housing residents complain that the homes have not been maintained, and repairs have been kept to a minimum.

The government claims it will cost as much as $100 million to restore and maintain the properties.

The average maintenance bill of each property at Millers and Dawes Point averages about $14,500 a year, compared with $3000 to $3500 across the rest of the state.

Announcing the sale of the first six properties, the Minister for Family and Community Services, Gabrielle Upton, and Minister for Finance and Services, Dominic Perrottet, said millions of dollars would be reinvested back into the state's social housing system.

Every house sold in Millers Point would "build three houses in many other suburbs of Sydney," the ministers said in a statement. Ms Upton said: "While we are very conscious that this involves relocating tenants who live in these properties, a tough decision had to be taken that will benefit far more people in need of housing assistance.

"It simply is not fair to the 58,000 applicants on the social housing waiting list for the government to spend hundreds of millions of dollars maintaining properties which are not suitable for public housing." The member for Sydney Alex Greenwich attacked the sale as being part of the government's social cleansing agenda, which "seeks to kick out low-income earners and vulnerable people from the city to make way for casinos". "

Cruelly this sales process has been announced the same week as the government has handed James Packer a gambling license for a private casino on public land next door to Millers Point," Mr Greenwich said.

He also said the government had yet to announce a strategy or plan on how it would invest the money from the sales into new public housing.

"The government is selling off a piece of Sydney's history, and prioritising casinos over communities," Mr Greenwich said. John Dunn, a publisher who moved to the area five years ago, said families such as Mrs Seckold's were not unusual.

 "Maritime was both employer and landlord for nearly everyone in this part of Sydney," he said. Mrs Seckold has met with the government's relocation consultants assigned to ease the transition for residents. She said the housing officer was kind, but still she has no plans to go.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/resident-refuses-to-move-as-government-sells-off-sydney-public-housing-at-millers-dawes-points-20140712-zt5f6.html#ixzz37FSkDQfm