ELDERLY, MILLER’S POINT, NSW GOVERNMENT

Published on Aug 18, 2014
On ‘Killing Us This Week’ we look at the dangers of relocating poor elderly people from public housing. Thankfully old people are well known to love change, moving and new things.

#RoastTv   The Roast airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ABC2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK71RiAWeRY&feature=youtu.be


http://savemillerspoint.blogspot.com.au/p/httpwww.html

REDWatch Analysis on Millers Point 

REDWatch has kept its members and supporters up to date through its email lists. Below we have drawn some of the material from these emails to provide an overview for a wider grouping of REDWatch's concerns.

A summary of some of the issues arising from the Millers Point announcement:

Social Impact Assessment - LAHC undertook that the Social Impact Assessment would be shown to tenants before any decisions were made. The Millers Point Social Impact Assessment was released after the announcement along with the Government response Government response to Millers Point SIA. LAHC have a long history of convincing communities that this time it will be different and they will keep their word! LAHC has a fundamental conflict and should not have carriage of community engagement with their own tenants around redevelopment issues.

The Government response – this document is a worry. For example the LAHC in Redfern argued under social mix for affordable housing in the redevelopment mix but in the response on Millers Point under Goward they are saying they have no interest in affordable or aged housing. The response is quite short and should be read by anyone wanting to understand why the Social Impact recommendations have not been acted upon – see also O'Farrell government ignored consultants' advice on plan to sell public housing at Millers Points and Battle for lost when Goward took control.

Heritage and Maintenance - There is an ongoing issue that if LAHC do not do in time maintenance then problems grow and cost much more especially in heritage properties. There is an element also that tenants believe that a number of things that LAHC said needed to be done were excessive and there to expand the cost of bring houses to standard. Heritage houses are also expensive to maintain but not everything disposed of will be heritage properties. Interesting the heritage listing for Millers Point includes the people that live there and this avenue of appeal is being considered.

Sirius building -  This building does not have maintenance issues and no one expected it to be sold off as not being suitable. It is ideal for aging in place. Its problem is that it sits on very expensive real estate. The introduction of the principle that public housing should not be in an area where there is strong market demand is worrying. On this basis much of the public housing in the inner-city, eastern suburbs and the north shore could be sold because it could build a greater number of units of housing in a less desirable place (and in most likelihood far from services, hospitals, public transport etc that makes locations desirable!)

The Public Housing Black hole – with LAHC selling off 2.5 housing units a day over the last ten years to pay the bills then it is highly unlikely that the sales will translate into new housing. It is most likely to go the way of previous sales where it contributes to a net reduction of housing stock and pays the bills for running the system. This funding will only go to new housing if there is another source to cover the operating deficit and the maintenance black hole.

The Millers point Media Pack – It has become apparent that the Government had a highly orchestrated approach to the announcement through the use of the Millers Point Announcement Media Pack. LAHC included in the media pack a number of case studies on their perspective on maintenance issues in Millers Point. The document indicates that particular properties were arranged to be specifically opened up for the media to provide footage / visual support for the LAHC case. The document also has a section on relocations which highlights some of LAHC newer properties and case studies of people who have been previously relocated out of the Millers Point area to such lovely places is highlighted. Of particular concern is a section on how much “Subsidy” (my inverted commas not LAHCs) tenants in Millers Point were provided. This included the case study in which it was argued a mother and son received a subsidy of $528,000. You can see the Tenants Union response to this at The truth about 'subsidies' at Millers Point and The Rocks, including TU raising concerns about the privacy of people used in the case studies. The subsidies are shown for other low income areas to highlight the LAHC argument. What is not shown is what the “subsidy”, LAHC say they are paying to other Inner City public housing tenants who like those in Millers Point LAHC would consider to be highly subsidised. This was a well-orchestrated media campaign.  It makes you wonder if LAHC was to roll this out into other inner city areas what might be said about the subsidies in Redfern, Waterloo, Surry Hills or Woolloomooloo and what case studies might be told about people in our communities!

Spreading Myths about Public Housing – Government conveniently forgets that the people in public housing are there because they put them there under a range of different arrangements. Some people that are there were there because they have been workers and paid full rent all the time they were working and are now retired, others are there because they are young and with the multiple issues needed to qualify for access to public housing, others in the case of Millers Point were transferred from Maritime Services Board housing. Some of the material in the media kit and said by the Minister strengthens negative stereotypes about public tenants and plays to peoples ignorance of what public housing is and how it works.

It will take longer to get off the housing waiting list – The tenants to be moved out of Millers Point will be given priority in allocations. The impact will be that 400 people that would have been housed off the waiting list will now not be housed in the next two years because those houses will go to people already in public housing and until the promised houses are built there will be 300 less public housing units for those on the waiting list to get into.

Community and support networks – public tenants like everyone else take time to put down roots and to develop their community support groups. If you have little mobility and have been in an area a long time that is where your support network is. The announcement that everyone would be moved out was not just about the loss of your home but also about the loss of your friendship and support network – the loss of your community. As public tenants made up such a large proportion of the area it is also about the wholesale change of the areas character – a bit like the neutron bomb of the late 1970’s removing all the existing community but leaving the property intact to be occupied by the newcomers.

Solidarity and Campaigning – The announcement marks the first time Government has sold off all the public housing stock in a suburb and argued that housing is in too good an area for public housing. There is a need to support those impacted in Millers Point but also for the community to take up the broader issue so other inner city areas do not get denuded of public housing because it is in too great of demand for private housing. How NGOs and communities respond to this challenge will determine the future of public housing in the Inner City and the NSW more generally. Support for Millers Point tenants was considered crucial at a REDWatch roundtable in April 2013 which examined the implications of the decision for other inner city public housing.

Join the Discussion and address the myths - it is also crucial for people who are supportive of public housing to be involved in the wider media and community discussion about the need for continued public housing in the inner city. There is a need to help the wider community understand how public housing works and who is in public housing given the stereotypes being played to by the Minister. For example does the community understand that the majority of people in public housing are aged pensioners who are not expected to get a job and move out of public housing. Does the wider community understand that when many of these people came into public housing it was intended for those that also worked and that many of the current aged have paid substantial rents during this time.

What others are doing

Inner Sydney Regional Council for Social Development has announced they will employ Joel Pringle to do some work to assist those working in Millers Point over the next few weeks. In the process of doing this ISRCSD will be asking Joel to make recommendations about what ongoing role ISRCSD and other organisations can play in Millers Point and on its broader implications for inner city public housing. It is proposed Joel will work alongside other groups in the area with minimal duplication. ISRCSD grew out of the campaigns in Redfern Waterloo led by Marg Barry to stop the destruction of that community by the Department of Housing. ISRCSD are now a regional agency covering the LGAs of Sydney Leichhardt Botany and the Eastern Suburbs. Their projects service tenant groups (David Whites TPRS role), Aged and disability Services (HACC), residents groups, community centres and human services interagencies.

Joel has experience in working with public housing tenants when working on the Working From the Ground Up project for Sydney University in South Maroubra and Matraville. He has recently worked for ACOSS and as Campaign Manager for Australians for Affordable Housing. He has worked in some community activities in the inner city where he has been spokesperson for the Lift Redfern Campaign, Chair of the Settlement Neighbourhood Centre and been on the ISRCSD Board.

Further Reading

REDWatch has put some of the key Millers Point documents on its website under Millers Point - ridding expensive suburbs of Public Housing. Shelter NSW have produced a newsletter insert Around the House No.96 - Millers Point supplement and the Tenants Union Blog has also covered the issues especially at The truth about 'subsidies' at Millers Point and The Rocks. You will also find out about media stories on social media at www.facebook.com/millerspointsaveourhomes.

The latest issue of the South Sydney Herald ran a number of articles on issues related to Millers Point that may be of interest on the issues:

• Why is this happening? State government neighbourhood sell-off
• Hollow men and hollow words
• Managed media
• Sydney needs more affordable housing
• March for maintenance – voicing concerns of public housing tenants

For More Information regarding REDWatch and Millers Point please contact REDWatch on mail@redwatch.org.au


http://www.redwatch.org.au/issues/public-housing/millers/140331redw

Millers Point is a community worth fighting for

It is now three weeks since the NSW Government announced plans to sell off the Millers Point community, kicking out the low-income, elderly, vulnerable, and hardworking people who have looked after this suburb for decades.
 

It is important to correct the government’s spin aimed at misleading the public. Media outlets were shown a few terraces that are deemed ‘too good’ for public housing tenants but the reality is that many of the Millers Point properties to be sold are low key and small walk-up units, without a view apart from a very noisy and dusty construction site at Barangaroo.
 

The ‘massive subsidies’ the government alleges tenants receive are nothing more than accounting entries based on the difference between the ‘market rent’ that someone made up and the rent the tenants pay.
 

In fact, according to the Tenants Union, Millers Point tenants have paid around $4.25 million in rent over the past two years alone. Many have been making their own repairs and fixing up their homes, because the government has neglected them pretty much since the Maritime Services Board gave the homes to the then Housing Commission to be used for low cost housing.

... continue reading:
http://www.allnewsau.com/news/comment-millers-point-is-community-worth-fighting-for

 http://www.allnewsau.com/term/Millers%20Point

http://www.newzulu.com.au/en/photos/australia/2014-08-26/6589/sydney-millers-point-locals-protest-second.html#f=0/64915

Sydney: Millers Point locals protest second public housing auction

Sydney protesters rally against a sell-off of Millers Point public housing during the private auction of a second state-owned property in Woollahra, Sydney on August 26, 2014.

The sale of the house at 29 Lower Fort Street for $2.56 million follows another private auction last Thursday, during which a terrace house at 119 Kent Street sold for $1.9 million. Members of the Millers Point community, many of which are aged 60 or over, believe the suburb is 'ground zero' for the forced eviction and relocation of public housing tenants by the state government.

Woollahra, Australia - 26 August 2014   

Second property sold in Millers Point

26 Aug 2014

Minister for Family and Community Services, Gabrielle Upton and Minister for Finance and Services, Dominic Perrottet, today announced the second government-owned property at Millers Point, 29 Lower Fort Street, was sold at auction for $2.56 million.


The five-bedroom heritage protected townhouse has extensive views of Sydney Harbour.
Minister Upton said the sales of properties in the harbour-side precinct would help to fund social housing across NSW.


“Tonight’s auction follows last week’s sale of a property for $1.91 million on Kent Street” Ms Upton said.


“All proceeds from sales will go straight back into maintenance and building contemporary social housing that is so urgently needed.


“On average, for every Millers Point property that is sold, we could build three more accessible and modern properties.


“And the new properties will be better suited and more comfortable for the elderly and families with special needs than in older Millers Point properties.


“The provision of new social housing, made possible through sales in Millers Point, will mean that more families in desperate need on the social housing waiting list can get secure, affordable housing.
“Every Millers Point tenant is being offered alternative accommodation in safer, more suitable properties and all reasonable costs of moving will be paid by the Government. More than 100 tenants have already chosen to move.


“There is a tenancy relocation service working with each tenant to determine their needs to ensure they are provided accommodation suited to their requirements and that they are satisfactorily re-established within their new community,” said Ms Upton.


Mr Perrottet said the second property to sell at 29 Lower Fort Street continued the strong interest from potential buyers in properties in the precinct.


“There are currently three other properties on the market as part of the Government’s first tranche of sales in the Millers Point precinct,” Mr Perrottet said.


“Millers Point is a unique historic precinct and it is continuing to capture the attention of the local property market.


"The real estate agent received strong interest for this property, with more than 200 prospective buyers inspecting the premises and more than 60 pre-auction contracts issued.


“These initial sales in Millers Point are an excellent test for the market and prove that there is a real desire to see this historic precinct restored and thriving.”


RESOURCED: http://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/about_us/media_releases/second-property-sold-in-millers-point

Government used "tea leaves" on Millers Point sale: expert

August 23, 2014
Nicole Hasham



Residents of Millers Point public housing protest the sale of their homes.

The state government is offloading hundreds of harbourside homes at Millers Point without economic modelling or an up-to-date social housing plan, raising doubts over the integrity of the controversial sale.

The absence of both a policy and economic data prompted one housing academic to ask if the public housing sell-off was decided by reading "tea leaves". NSW Labor says the government risks flooding the market with homes, damaging returns to taxpayers.

The Department of Family and Community Services on Friday refused to answer questions on why potential economic outcomes were not modelled before former Community Services Minister Pru Goward announced the sale in March.

It has emerged that NSW Land and Housing Corporation Deputy Director-General Anne Skewes told a parliamentary inquiry in May that "I have done no economic modelling" on the Millers Point sale.




Millers Point: a community under the hammer

Ms Skewes said "sales advice" was required "to know precisely the investment that will be made" when proceeds are fed back into the social housing system.

The first Millers Point home sold at auction on Thursday for $1.911 million. The government has 18 months to sell the remaining 292 properties and relocate hundreds of tenants.

Labor MP Sophie Cotsis described the decision to "sell an entire suburb" without economic modelling as "sheer incompetence".

"They are just going to flood the market," she said.

"The government says they will build more [social housing] properties, but where? We just don't know."

University of Sydney urban planning professor Peter Phibbs described the absence of modelling as "staggering".

"It seems pretty cavalier. It's a substantial change in policy, it's a lot of properties, a lot of money," he said, asking if bureaucrats used "tea leaves" to arrive at the decision.

A report by the NSW Auditor-General in June last year said selling public housing to fill a budget shortfall was "not financially sustainable".

It called on the government to produce a new social housing policy, and strategies to manage housing estates and its asset portfolio, by December. The plans have not been delivered.

A departmental spokeswoman said the government was "developing its social housing priorities".

She said the Millers Point sale was "due to the high cost of maintenance … and high potential sales value".

"Selling properties at Millers Point is a financially sustainable way … to manage the portfolio," the spokeswoman said.

"The sales proceeds and savings in maintenance costs mean more money will be available to assist those who need help from the social housing system."

As reported, Lend Lease is wavering on a commitment to build affordable housing at Barangaroo, and has considered locating it at Millers Point.

City of Sydney Labor councillor Linda Scott is due to put a motion to the council on Monday, calling for affordable housing to be built at Barangaroo.

"There is an urgent need for more affordable housing in the inner-city which is close to jobs and transport," she said.

Resourced: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/government-used-tea-leaves-on-millers-point-sale-expert-20140822-107ceq.html

Friends of Erskineville express concerns for public housing with proposal to redevelop Central to Eveleigh

Darren Jenkins, president of FOE, talks to resident Elena Black about the NSW Government's plans to redevelopment 46 homes on Explorer Street, South Eveleigh. Picture: Craig Wilson

Sarah Sharples   August 22, 2014


ELANA Black has already been moved out of her public housing unit in Glebe because the building was knocked down. She doesn’t want to be displaced again.

The mother of three was living in Edgar St, Glebe, before being given six months notice that she had to move.
She moved into a big four-bedroom house in Darling St in Glebe but was “fortunate” to do a swap into public housing in Eveleigh.

“It’s so quiet here. It’s heaven and it’s beautiful here. It’s such a change to come here,” Ms Black said. “We’re so relieved we could sleep in our beds and not worry about fighting and screaming on the streets.”

 

The public housing town houses in South Eveleigh potentially earmarked for development. Picture: Craig Wilson

    

MORE NEWS: Barangaroo rats seek board and lodging in Millers Point

Doubts cast on the viability of Millers Point public housing sell-off

But a plan from the NSW Government to redevelop the Central to Eveleigh corridor — including taller residential buildings adjacent to the rail corridor in South Eveleigh — has left community group Friends of Erskineville (FOE) worried about the implications for public housing in the area.

FOE president Darren Jenkins and committee member Zio Ledeux doorknocked 46 public townhouses in the area earlier this month to let residents know about the plan.

“When the Government puts forward material like this and when they show this grand plan, which must mean knocking someone’s house down and you don’t do anything to reassure the residents, you can frighten some very vulnerable people,” he said.

“Several of the families we spoke with while doorknocking had already been relocated from public housing that had been sold off and now here is the prospect that they will be asked to pack up and move out again — it’s just not right,” he said.

“Those families that had just moved from Millers Point — to think they would be pushed out of their house again in the next five years is galling.”

A protest is held out the front of the John McGrath Real Estate Office in Edgecliff over the auctions taking place at the Millers Point Housing Commission homes. An apartment sold for around two million dollars.

A Department of Family and Community Services spokeswoman said there are just under 100 social housing properties in the South Eveleigh area.

“The department of Family & Community Services will be seeking to maintain social housing in the area,” she said.

FOE has written to Family and Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton expressing concerns about the NSW Government’s redevelopment plans and seeking assurances that public housing residents will not be forced from their homes and relocated out of the area. 

A letter has been sent to Family and Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton expressing concerns about the proposed plans.

    

For Ms Black, she is tired of the image of public housing people just being “ferals”, but said honest people live in housing commission.

“I pay full rent so I should be treated as a private tenant. I love it here,” she said.

I am just not prepared to move. But we will be the last people to know that they’re going to knock this place down — that’s what happened to us in Glebe.”



First six public housing properties being sold by the state government at Millers Point at The Rocks. 119 Kent Street, Millers Point.

     DEVELOPMENT DETAILS


■ The South Eveleigh Precinct vision is a primarily residential precinct centred around neighbourhood scale shops and high-quality public spaces, along with walkable streets with excellent connects to the surrounding neighbourhoods


■ The development is planned for some time in the next five years


■ It would comprise diverse apartment buildings — taller buildings adjacent to the rail corridor with lower buildings on the precinct edges to provide a transition to the existing low-scale neighbourhood

Resourced: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/inner-west/friends-of-erskineville-express-concerns-for-public-housing-with-proposal-to-redevelop-central-to-eveleigh/story-fngr8h4f-1227038459721?nk=6d837b9c7b4805c4645de249122a94f0

Time for Strategy: Part 2

Saturday, 16 August 2014

 

It's been a while since I wrote my first instalment on the eviction of public housing tenants from Sydney's harbour front - Millers Point, the Rocks, and Dawes Point. As promised, I am going to look at potential strategies and tactics residents can use in the resistance.

But first, here's an update on what's happened so far...

The NSW Liberal Government has been doing a pretty good job of screwing over elderly, the disabled, the working class, the vulnerable, and the disadvantaged. The taskforce on Sydney's housing affordability crisis has not met in over a year. But is has gotten rid of strict heritage rules for property developers. We also know that the government feels comfortable cooking the books to hide the deadly effect of sell-off. There has been reports of hospitalisations, a heart attack, and at least one suicide. Some excellent reporting from Nicole Hasham, Sydney Morning Herald.

How do they sleep at night?
 
And also, the campaign to save Millers Point, et al...

The indomitable Barney Gardner has been front and centre of the campaign. There has been sustained media attention from mainstream and alternative media, mostly sympathetic. Social cleansing. Two-legged rats. Let's not forget that the residents took on the government in the 1970's, and won. The government is experiencing getting its message across. Good. There has been some really good fundraising initiatives, from t-shirts to family days. Great. You can't run a campaign without money. If you have coins to spare, please consider making a donation.

But, have they won..?

Nope. The government has pressured some residents to relocate, but many are refusing to move. We understand 102 households have accepted offers of relocation but a further 291 at Millers Point and the Rocks have not accepted the offers. The hard data is a little sobering, but we must remember this is a David and Goliath battle. The NSW Liberal Government has employed questionable tactics from the very start. It has been inundating residents with casual drop-ins, telephone calls, texts, letters, and interviewing residents with no lawyers, guardians, or support persons.

I could think of a few choice words to describe this behaviour, but I will restrain myself. Indecent. Immoral. Unethical. Unconscionable.

What else can be done..?

We need to dig in our heels and up the ante. Labour in opposition is opposed to the fire sale. The next NSW election is scheduled for next year, March.

Delay, delay, delay

It is difficult not to link the Millers Point sell-off with claims of large-scale and systemic corruption. Property developers have been banned from making political donations in New South Wales since 2009. We know now that members of the Liberal Party have been accepting bribes from property developers. There has been talk of bundles of cash. I wouldn't be surprised if the Independent Commission into Corruption (ICAC) is quietly investigating the sell-off. Eight MPs have stood down, including former Premier, Barry O'Farrell. In light of this scandal, the sale of Millers Point is hardly tenable. If I was Mike Baird, I would be seriously reconsidering this decision. If anyone has any information, please come forward.

Ramp up the resistance

We've got to ramp up the resistance. There comes a point where no matter the community outrage, the government forges ahead with its plans. I would be talking to trade unions to see how they can help. I would refuse to comply with eviction and other notices. I would be picketing inspections and auctions of the properties. I would be employing peaceful resistance tactics. I would be holding prayer vigils in parliamentary offices.

Above all else, tenants must stick together no matter what. I have seen Channel 10 interview homeless people  for their views on the sell-off. This is part and parcel of the NSW Liberal Government's strategy. Divide and conquer. As I've said before, I highly doubt the Liberal Government is going to reallocate funding to housing. Look at the evidence.

Media Coverage:
 

• Tim Barlass, 'Rats plague vulnerable elderly of Millers Point, UN told' (Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 2014)
• Kate McClymont, 'ICAC told former police minister Mike Gallacher was 'orchestrating' illegal donations from Nathan Tinkler's property development company'  (Sydney Morning Herald, 13 August 2013)
• Nicole Hasham, 'Heritage rules scrapped for Millers Point buyers' (Sydney Morning Herald, 12 August 2014)
• Nicole Hasham, 'Government downplayed death warning at Millers Point' (Sydney Morning Herald, 10 August 2014) 

Resourced: http://landlordwatch.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/time-for-strategy-part-2.html

SECRET AUCTIONS AT MILLERS POINT RAISE COMMUNITY CONCERN

August 21, 2014

The NSW Liberal Government’s secret auctions of public housing properties at Millers Point strikes at the heart of community confidence that this is nothing more than a fire sale of public assets and should be stopped.

“The revelations that public housing at Millers Point are going to be sold in secret is just more evidence that taxpayers can have no confidence in this process and that it needs to be stopped immediately,” Shadow Minister for Housing Sophie Cotsis said.

“These secret auctions show the government is more concerned with a quick cash grab, rather than the best interests of taxpayers and the current tenants of these properties.

“The Liberals claims they want to invest the revenue from the sales in new public housing but there is no evidence of that in the budget.

“Everyone knows that if you are selling your house at auction, you want to attract as many bidders as possible in order to get the best price.

“Instead of making these auctions open for everyone, the NSW Liberal Government is holding them in secret.

“These secret auctions are not transparent and they do not guarantee the best return for the sale of a public asset.

“The Liberals’ watered down heritage requirements mean that potential speculators can landbank these properties for future development.”

Labor candidate for Sydney Edwina Lloyd condemned the Liberals’ handling of housing at Millers Point.

“Labor opposes the forced eviction of public housing tenants from Millers Point,” Labor candidate for Sydney Edwina Lloyd said.

“The NSW Liberal Government has already been caught tampering with reports to downplay the impact that forced evictions will have on residents’ health - and they have watered down heritage rules for purchasers of these properties.

“These secret auctions show that the entire process is a sham and that the Liberals are determined to sell these properties, even if it means that taxpayers do not receive the best sale price at auction.

“I am calling on the NSW Liberal Government to halt this sale process, talk to the tenants they are evicting and develop a real plan to deliver affordable housing in the inner-city.”

Resourced: http://www.johnrobertson.com.au/secret_auctions_at_millers_point

Vacated Millers Point four level terrace fetches $1.911 million at private State Government auction

Jonathan Chancellor | 21 August 2014



The jubilant Minister for Family and Community Services, Gabrielle Upton, and Minister for Finance and Services, Dominic Perrottet, have announced the first sale of a government-owned heritage property at Millers Point sold at McGrath auction for $1.911 million tonight.

The news of the sale price was broken on twitter by 2GB, with bidding starting at $1 million.

The last public housing tenant paid $77.20 a week rent at the property which had revised price guidance of $1.3 million plus. It has water views over Walsh Bay.

An initial price guide of $1 million plus was suggested for the rundown four-bedroom heritage-listed home which has been vacant since early 2011.

“For every Millers Point property that is sold, we can build three modern properties that are more accessible and comfortable,” Ms Upton said after the auction.

She said the sale was "a win" for the 58,000 households on the waiting list for public housing because it helps make the social housing system more sustainable and will help get new properties in the system sooner.”

But activists says that the minister who introduced the relocation policy, Pru Goward has thrice refused to commit all sale proceeds to public housing.

The first property to go under the hammer, 119 Kent Street, received strong buyer interest with more than 200 groups inspecting the four bedroom, four level property in the first two weeks of its listing.

That was despite property inspections being strictly by appointment, with buyers teeing it up with the listing agent.

There were also more than 1500 enquiries received through the real estate agent’s website and more than 50 pre-auction very bulky contracts were issued.

There are currently five other properties on the auction market - including through Di Jones Real Estate - as part of the Government’s first tranche of sales in the Millers Point precinct.

Given concerns of activist tenants turning up to distrupt the auction, there was no disclosure as to the location of the auction.

Conditions of entry to the auction, drawn up by Government Property NSW and obtained by Fairfax Media, banned any form of video, audio or photography.

All media outlets were to be denied entry.

Almost 600 public housing tenants will be evicted across 263 homes for the sales program, which has been described by critics as ''social cleansing''. Even the Pet Shop Boys during their recent visit tweeted their concern as to the relocation outcome. 

One of the properties is a four-bedroom 1840 Georgian house called Tarra, that has views of the Opera House from underneath the bridge.

The strict silly auction rules were reported by The SMH as including:

1.      As the auction will be held on private property, McGrath reserves its rights.

2.      Admittance to the auction is for bona fide buyers who are in a position to purchase the property on the night.

3.      Due to restricted space, only pre-registrations will be accepted and only two people per group are permitted.

4.      No press or media or other real estate agents will be permitted entry.

5.      No video, audio or still photography will be permitted.

6.      Individuals that cause disturbance on the night or during the auction process will be asked to leave or may be removed.

7.      You will be asked to sign the above conditions of entry on the night.

Resourced: http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/finding/residential-investment/sales-and-auctions/34760-millers-point-four-level-terrace-fetches-1-911-million-at-private-auction.html

First Millers Point property sells for $1.9 million

The first property to be auctioned as part of the state government sell-off of public housing at Millers Point sold for $1,911,000 on Thursday night.

The house at of 119 Kent Street was initially marketed through McGrath's Peter Starr for more than $1 million. Due to the high level of interest, the price guide was was revised to more than $1.3 million ahead of the auction.

The private auction was held at McGrath Estate Agents' head office in Edgecliff with only vetted pre-registered bidders invited to attend. On arrival potential buyers were required to show their cheque book before they were were allowed to enter.

An auction attendee advised Domain of the sale price and said "everyone in the room was shocked".
Bidding started at $1 million but then jumped up to $1.45 million. It was purchased by a buyer who appeared to be in his thirties.
The Minister for Finance and Services, Dominic Perrottet, said "this initial sale is an excellent test for the market".



Sold: 119 Kent Street, Millers Point sold for $1.9 million at a private auction on Thursday night.

Millers Point: a community under the hammer

The four-bedroom unrenovated terrace had been vacant since February 2011. The last public housing tenant paid $77.20 a week in rent.

There were approximately 80 people present at the auction. More than 50 pre-auction contracts were issued for the property.

One of the conditions of entry specified that only two people per group were allowed to attend due to "restricted space".

Members of the Millers Point community were gathered outside the auction to protest the government sell-off.

The house is the first of 293 state-owned properties to be sold in the Millers Point precinct.
The remainder will be sold off over a two year period with the next auction taking place on Tuesday August 26.

There are currently five freehold Millers Point homes listed on Domain.com.au.

Resourced: http://m.smh.com.au/domain/real-estate-news/first-millers-point-property-sells-for-19-million-20140821-106usl.html

PROTESTING & HOLDING A VIGIL

TONIGHT - PROTESTING & HOLDING A VIGIL" outside of the "McGrath Estate Agents" at 5:00pm-7:00pm, 119 New South Head Rd.

Save Millers Point Community Housing

 

Save Millers Point Community Housing

BUYER BEWARE: SALE DOES NOT HAVE COMMUNITY SUPPORT

The Millers Point Community today said the NSW Government had failed to win community support for the sale of public housing at Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks.

Millers Point, Dawes Point and the Rocks Public Housing Tenants Group Convenor Barney Gardner said the first of the houses to be put up for sale (119 Kent Street, Millers Point) would be auctioned by McGrath Real Estate tonight.

“Premier Mike Baird and Minister for Vaucluse Gabrielle Upton have failed to win support for the sale.” Mr Gardner said.

“They have no political mandate, and no social license for their cruel program to displace an entire community of public housing tenants.”

“Whoever buys these properties will be contributing to the destruction of a close-knit community, while removing many elderly and vulnerable people from their local support networks.”

Mr Gardner also slammed McGrath Real Estate for profiteering from the sale process.

“If McGrath had any sense of corporate responsibility it would have declined the opportunity to tender for this project.”

“The agent knows these sales are morally wrong because they are being held behind closed doors, under the cover of darkness.”

On behalf of the residents of Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks who are being evicted, I call on people to show their disgust by Boycotting McGrath Real Estate and taking their business elsewhere.”

Note: Member of the Millers Point community will be holding a protest vigil outside the McGrath Real Estate headquarters in Edgecliff between 6pm and 7pm tonight.

WHAT: Millers Point protest vigil.

WHEN: Between 6pm and 7pm tonight, Thursday 21 August

WHO: Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks public housing tenants.

WHERE: 191 New South Head Road, Edgecliff.

GABRIELLE UPTON'S COMEDY CAPERS

 By Edwina Lloyd

The spin doctors in Minister Upton’s Office probably thought they were forming a cunning plan to thwart the nasty public housing tenants, but the ridiculous secrecy surrounding the covert auction of the Millers Point properties smacks of Inspector Clouseau rather than James Bond.

I smell a rat.

The sale process has turned into a comical and chaotic display of the Liberal Government’s complete arrogance and disregard for public opinion.

The auctions will be by invitation only, with bidders vetted to make sure they are genuine buyers - and not “plants” who might leak the secret details to either the media or, horror of all horrors, local residents.

It's been reported that bidders at the auctions will be informed of the location just two hours beforehand, via text message.

 About a year ago, the Baird Liberal Government announced that it would destroy this close-knit community. Did they really think the locals wouldn’t be a little upset?

Their arrogant, callous and careless actions once again shows that they just don’t care about what people think of them. They don’t listen to the concerns from the community.

As long as they give property developers and wealthy investors what they want, then the broader community can go to hell.

Certainly, Minister Upton has done everything in her power to give people that impression. She has steadfastly refused to meet with the people she is displacing from Millers Point, failed to respond to their letters, avoided their phone calls and even ducked for cover when they inconveniently turned up at one of her press conferences.

As one of the 60 per cent elderly Millers Point residents, Barney, proclaims, “What is she scared of? Does she think we will attack her with our walking sticks? We just want to share our concerns, we deserve that at least, don’t we?”

Safely ensconced in her Double Bay bunker, where she has almost zero chance of running into someone with an annual income of under $150,000, she can reassure herself that flogging off public housing properties in Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks is somehow in the public interest.

Even though, of course, her rationale to explain the sales is completely flawed and based on a lie.

 Last week Joe Hockey told us that poor people don’t drive cars. This week Gabrielle Upton is showing us that, according to the Liberals, poor people don’t deserve to live in the city.

 It’s that belief which is driving Gabrielle Upton’s program to rid Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks of pensioners and people on low-incomes.

The whole program stinks, the rat is out of the bag, Minister. Cloaking the auctions under a veil of government secrecy won’t disguise the putrid smell of the Liberal’s latest sad, mean scheme.

YOU CAN SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN!

Sign the online petition- https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/save-the-heritage-the-community-of-millers-point-dawes-point-the-rocks

Download, print out and fill out & return the paper based petition-https://clrdoutney.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/millers-point-petition.pdf

Support the campaign and buy a T-Shirt Online-
http://www.capturethatphotographics.com/ Mouse over photography projects then click on Save Millers Point it will bring up the T-Shirt Purchase page.
Support the campaign crowd fund and donate online-

http://www.pozible.com/project/185489

Clover Moore is only half the story: shadowy panel devouring Sydney land

Alex Mitchell | Aug 20, 2014
An Orwellian five-member panel will be making planning decisions surrounding Sydney public land in future. Cui bono? NSW political reporter Alex Mitchell reports.



Get used to the name of the entity known as UrbanGrowth NSW, because you will be hearing a lot more about it over the next few years.

It is the Orwellian body created by the New South Wales Coalition government to control the levers of urban planning and development. It has a five-member board to administer multibillion-dollar projects that will devour public land and public spending while delivering massive profits to construction companies and their investors.

Already UrbanGrowth NSW has its hands all over prime Sydney Harbour land near Balmain, called Bay Precinct, the Parramatta CBD and the historic centre of Newcastle.

The state-owned corporation was established in 2012 by then-planning minister Brad Hazzard, a Manly solicitor recently elevated to Attorney-General and Justice Minister.

New Planning Minister Pru Goward, a former ABC presenter and John Howard’s handpicked Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, is now in charge of the body whose mission statement reads like something scripted by Rob Sitch, of Hollowmen and Utopia fame.

According to the official website, its task is “to drive urban transformation that will underpin the future prosperity of urban and regional centres across NSW. We collaborate with government, private and community stakeholders to create a united vision of a project, building a strong sense of placemaking in the renewal process and enabling its delivery.”

In future, major urban projects will be discussed and decided by UrbanGrowth’s cabinet-appointed board members without obstruction from meddlesome councillors, MPs, public servants, community groups or environmentalists.


“If the Coalition succeeds in rigging the ballot in favour of the business community in Sydney’s CBD, why not elsewhere?”

Just as James Packer collared a high rollers’ casino site from the Barangaroo Delivery Authority and VicUrban delivered the construction boom at Melbourne Docklands, so UrbanGrowth is poised to make super profits for developers, fund managers and overseas investors in urban centres in NSW.

It is fulfilling the catchcries of the Baird (and Abbott) governments: “We’re open for business”, “We want to be remembered for building infrastructure” (i.e. any infrastructure at any cost, regardless of its community or cultural value) and “we know best what should be built, where and by whom”.

Accompanying the pro-development push are authoritarian changes to the local government electoral system, starting with greater voting entitlements for big businesses in the City of Sydney.

Premier Mike Baird has given support to legislation proposed in the upper house by the reactionary Shooters Party to arm big business with two votes while ordinary citizens receive one, an objective long advocated by shock jock Alan Jones and The Daily Telegraph.

Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore, an independent, has become the centre of attention, as she claims the proposal to give businesses two votes is aimed specifically at her. But this is only half-true:

Moore’s days are numbered anyway, and if she doesn’t resign at the next council election in 2016, when she will be approaching 70, she faces almost certain defeat.

Major CBD redevelopments in Sussex Street, Chinatown, Haymarket and Millers Point, all blue-chip sites for profit-hungry developers, are the primary considerations in the push for a pro-business Sydney City Council.

Will the embarrassing departure of Newcastle lord mayor Jeff “The Developer” McCloy following cash campaign donations he made to Liberal MPs at the 2011 state election lead to a greater voting entitlement for businesses in Newcastle as well? If the Coalition succeeds in rigging the ballot in favour of the business community in Sydney’s CBD, why not elsewhere?

Balmain MP Jamie Parker, the former mayor of Leichhardt and the first Green in the Legislative Assembly, has condemned UrbanGrowth’s compulsory purchase powers and its lack of transparency.

He has asked why there are no community representatives on the five-member  board, which consists of chairman John Brogden, a former NSW opposition leader, Matthew Quinn, former managing director of Stockland (2000-2013), Robert Hamilton, co-founder of the Mirvac Group, Bonita Boezeman, executive with Time Warner for 23 years, and chief executive David Pitchford, chief operating officer of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games and ex-general manager of the mega-development called Palm Jumeirah in Dubai.

“The names don’t fill me with confidence,” Parker told Crikey. “They are a who’s who of big-time developers and their friends.”

Architects, town planners and community groups are waiting for John Robertson’s opposition to commit to scrapping UrbanGrowth NSW and the proposed pro-business City of Sydney voting system.
RESOURCED: http://www.crikey.com.au/?p=453320

Secret auction of Millers Point house

Nicole Hasham, Toby Johnstone

21st August 2014



Under the hammer: The Kent Street house is expected to fetch $1.3m.

 The first state-owned property at Millers Point is going to auction at a secret location on Thursday evening, and skittish authorities have imposed unusually strict rules on those invited to attend.

The house at 119 Kent Street is the first of 293 public housing properties to be sold off at Millers Point and The Rocks.

The last public housing tenant paid $77.20 a week in rent. The property now has a price guide of more than $1.3 million.



Under the hammer: The Kent Street house is expected to fetch $1.3m

 


Millers Point: a community under the hammer

 

Millers Point: a community under the hammer

In a bid to duck media attention and protests over the controversial public housing sell-off, only vetted buyers who are ''in a position to purchase the property on the night'' will be permitted entry.
Under instructions from the government, McGrath Estate Agents have not publicly disclosed the address where the auction will be held.
 
Conditions of entry to the auction, drawn up by Government Property NSW and obtained by Fairfax Media, ban any form of video, audio or photography. Media outlets will be denied entry.
 
The conditions, which must be signed by bidders, include a warning that ''individuals that cause disturbance on the night or during the auction process will be asked to leave or may be removed''. 
 
An initial price guide of more than $1 million was given for the rundown four-bedroom heritage-listed home, but it has since been revised upwards. The property has been vacant since February 2011.
 
Almost 600 public housing tenants will be evicted for the sales program, which has been described by critics as ''social cleansing''.
 
Labor candidate for the state seat of Sydney Edwina Lloyd accused the government of ''ridiculous secrecy surrounding the covert auction''.
 
''The sale process has turned into a comical and chaotic display of the Liberal government’s complete arrogance and disregard for public opinion,'' she said.
 
As  previously reported, the government has also gagged real estate agents from talking to the media, and property inspections are strictly by appointment. Bidders for some homes have reportedly been told they will be given two hours' notice of the auction, due to fears of protests.
 
Fair Trading Minister Matthew Mason-Cox last week rejected suggestions the sales lacked transparency, telling Parliament he had ''complete confidence'' in the auction process.
 
Millers Point community leader Barney Gardner said residents were calling for a boycott of real estate agents involved in the sales, accusing them of ''profiteering out of people’s misery''.
 
To make their views known to potential buyers, Millers Point residents are planning a protest at McGraths Estate Agents’ head office at Edgecliff on Thursday evening, where they believe the auction will take place.
 
''[Buyers] will contribute to the destruction of a close-knit community, and would also be removing many elderly and vulnerable people from their local support networks,'' Mr Gardner said.

A Government Property NSW spokesman said it was ''normal'' for agents to vet prospective buyers ''in any auction of this type''.
 
Potential buyers were required to pre-register for the auction ''given the high level of interest'', he said.
 
Dawn Caruana, a Kent Street public housing tenant, said she would ''fight to the end'' to stay at Millers Point.
 
''There is a community here and I don’t think it should be broken,'' she said.

 Condition of Entry 

1.      As the auction will be held on private property, McGrath reserves its rights.

2.      Admittance to the auction is for bona fide buyers who are in a position to purchase the property on the night.

3.      Due to restricted space, only pre-registrations will be accepted and only two people per group are permitted.

4.      No press or media or other real estate agents will be permitted entry.

5.      No video, audio or still photography will be permitted.

6.      Individuals that cause disturbance on the night or during the auction process will be asked to leave or may be removed.

7.      You will be asked to sign the above conditions of entry on the night.
 Resourced: http://www.smh.com.au/domain/real-estate-news/secret-auction-of-millers-point-house-20140820-1066ai.html

BIG INTEREST IN FIRST MILLERS POINT PUBLIC HOUSES

 By Alicia Wood



119 Kent Street, Millers Point.      

 The first two Millers Point public housing properties will go to auction this month, with one having attracted more than 200 inspections already.

 The four-storey Victorian house at 119 Kent St, with harbour views, has had more than 200 inspections and has attracted more than 1000 inquiries — with more than 50 people signing pre-auction contracts ahead of the 21 August sale.

 Five days later Lower Fort Street — another four storey house with harbour views — will go under the hammer. Together, the properties are expected to make the NSW government more than $4 million — enough to build at least eight new Housing NSW properties in Western Sydney.

 They are the first of 293 former public housing properties in Millers Point to be sold.

 The government expects to make at least $500 million from the sale process.

 Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton said it would cost up to $100 million to restore and maintain the houses. “It simply is not fair to the 58,000 applicants on the social housing waiting list for the government to spend millions of dollars maintaining properties which are not suitable for social housing,” Ms Upton said.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/homebuyers-search-for-the-suburbs-that-have-houses-for-sale-at-less-than-1-million/story-fndban6l-1227019799198

Our Response
G' Day Friends & Supporters of Millers Point! If this naïve Minister, Gabrielle Upton would accept our invitation come to Millers Point and meet the Public Housing Tenants maybe, just maybe she would understand that over 90% don't live in homes like the ones being sold and that the huge maintenance & repair bills she refers to are not applicable to the majority of the P.H.T's homes, and, as to "NOT SUITABLE" for Public Housing! What’s changed in over 100yrs to make them unsuitable? And they will last another 100yrs if the maintenance & repairs are performed periodically as they were by the previous landlords Sydney Harbour Trust and then the M.S.B. (both State Gov. Depts.)

The This Tenant of 65yrs in the same dwellings (40yrs next door, 25yrs? present home) can only see one reason and that is the huge amount of money that would be shared by the "STATE LIBERAL GOV. & THEIR DEVELOPER MATES" from the sale of our homes. You see the homes that have already been sold were to private individuals and they have been vacant for several years as are the latest offerings but what about the typical rows of Terrace Houses that the average Public Housing Tenant lives in that could be brought back to pristine condition for approx. 1/4 of the figure quoted by the State Liberal Gov.? These will be very attractive and Developers will buy entire streets!

Let’s not forget no State Government own these properties "You" the people of NSW do! and should ponder one thing, and that is these simple dwellings including the large homes they are selling have been "PAID FOR TEN TIMES OVER IN THEIR LIFE TIME" and the main reason that they have stood the test of time is because of the people that have, and still lived in them! Importantly the reason that they have lapsed into disrepair is due to those who owe not only the Tenants but the people of NSW duty of care! That’s right the "NSW Government".

I ask more questions out of interest, if $4 million is expected to be raised for the sale of these two properties and "EIGHT NEW H/NSW PROPERTIES" are to be built in Western Sydney, then "WHERE & WHEN" will the first spade of dirt be turned because already $40 million has been raised through the sale of properties in Millers Point previously and there is no evidence of large developments of Social, Public or Affordable Housing in NSW, rather this State Liberal Gov. has sold off more properties then it has built or acquired. We here at the "POINT" remain sceptical and suspicious!!!

Kind Regards, Barney Gardner.

#savemillerspoint 

Resourced: http://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/homebuyers-search-for-the-suburbs-that-have-houses-for-sale-at-less-than-1-million/story-fndban6l-1227019799198 

Millers Point: A Community Up For Sale

By Thomas Williams    16 Aug 2014

The NSW Government's determination to clear out public housing from one of the nation's priciest suburbs is matched only by the determination of long-time residents to stay. Thomas Williams reports.
 

Within the first six months of 1900, over 44,000 rats were killed and heaped into piles throughout some of Sydney’s oldest suburbs.

In an attempt to rid the city of the bubonic plague, professional rat catchers either threw the rats’ muddied corpses into Sydney harbour or destroyed them in special rat-friendly incinerators.

Those very rats, covered in plague-spreading fleas, first made land on the wharves which still hug the suburb of Millers Point.

Many local homes were marked for cleansing, disinfecting, demolition and burning, as the plague went on to kill 103 people in eight months. Today, homes in Millers Point are still being marked out, but for a different type of cleansing.

The New South Wales state government will auction off 293 high-value public housing properties in Millers Point, Gloucester Street and the Sirius building in The Rocks over a two year period, forcing 590 residents to be relocated.

Many of these residents, and even some whose homes aren’t being sold, have tied yellow ribbons to their front doors in solidarity against the state government’s plan.

Aside from such a ribbon, the red-brick frontage of 14 High Street is decorated with three small Australian flags and the words “NO SALE OF PUBLIC HOUSING” stencilled onto a white banner.
The home, like many others in the suburb, has barely changed as high-rises have climbed into the cityscape around it. Number 14 belongs to Barney Gardner, a 65-year-old who has lived in Millers Point since his birth.

Barney has moved house only once, making the trip from 12 High Street to 14 High Street in 1990.
You never stray far from the tree.

Sandwiched between commercial tourist precinct The Rocks on its east and the forthcoming high-roller-haven Barangaroo to its west, Millers Point is comparatively quiet, placid and residential. It’s dotted with slick offices but lined with pastel and earth-coloured terraces. The homes here are heritage listed, “But the people are too,” Barney says. “So if they get rid of the people, who’s gonna tell the stories?”

IMAGE: Angela Nicholson.

Approaching the Harry Jensen Activity Centre on Argyle Street, a large banner is visible across the centre’s fence-line - “OUR COMMUNITY NOT 4 SALE”. Inside, the space is weighted by a sterile linoleum floor, metal-framed chairs crowding small round tables, and a kitchen to the rear.

A whiteboard on the wall reads, “THURSDAY: Roast pork with gravy and apple, or french lamb casserole, and veggies.”

Barney twice offers coffee or tea or water or biscuits before we sit. He’s wearing a plaid flannel shirt, and speaks calmly. But just over a week before we spoke, he was standing outside Sydney Town Hall, yelling into a megaphone and comparing the state government’s plan to Nazism.

“We’re gonna stay in our places FOREVER,” he and over a dozen protesters shouted, their voices coldly subsumed by the wind.

In March, Pru Goward, then Minister for Family and Community Services, revealed that the state government will relocate the 590 evicted residents and reinvest the proceeds from the sale of their homes back into the social housing system, which has over 57,000 people on its waiting list.

Affected residents immediately received a letter from Family & Community Services titled “MOVING TO A NEW HOME”.

The letter opened with, “I am writing to you today to inform you that government owned properties in Millers Point area [sic] will be sold, including the home you occupy.”

Three residents died and two others were hospitalised in the following weeks.

“It can’t be directly attributed to what’s going on, but we know [the letter] did affect them,” Barney says, shuffling the newspapers and documents which sit in piles on the table between us.

As the convener of the Millers Point, Dawes Point & The Rocks Public Housing Tenants Group,
Barney speaks for many residents who cannot represent themselves.

According to Barney, Millers Point is “under attack” from a “blitzkrieg” whose main tactic is harassment via Specialist Relocations Officers, aka the government “goons”.

“We don’t wanna have a violent confrontation, but if they force that upon us that’s their doing, not ours," he says. “We’ll just be linking arms and chaining ourselves to gates and doorways.”
Specialist social agency Cred Community Planning were commissioned by the Department of Housing in 2012 to develop a Social Impact Assessment for Millers Point.

The assessment was only made publicly available on the day of Pru Goward’s sale announcement. Cred’s assessment declared that the public housing in Millers Point “is not generally considered suitable as social housing dwellings”, due to the expense of internal upgrades, high maintenance liabilities, and the fact that many buildings aren’t Building Code of Australia compliant.

In her sale announcement, Goward claimed that almost $7 million had been spent on property maintenance over the last two years alone.

Cred recommended that some of the funds from the sale of homes in and around Millers Point be used to build new social housing properties nearby, especially for elderly residents, adding that they may experience “ongoing negative impacts of stress and poor health outcomes”.

The state government dismissed this recommendation, and said that they want elderly residents to “build connections in their new communities”.

Cred’s assessment also noted that 55 per cent of Millers Point tenants have lived in the area for over 10 years, and that 12 households have lived in the suburb for at least five generations.

For many residents, the state government’s plan to sell their homes is not only an attack on the basis of their livelihoods but an attack on their emotional and historical links to the suburb.

For many, including Barney, it’s a losing battle.

“My mind wanders to despair because I see the elderly people here. The despair and the look in their eyes, the sound of their voice. But that helps me keep focused on what we’re trying to do,” he says. “Would the Americans allow a McDonalds to be built on Plymouth Rock?” Barney suddenly asks.
“[Millers Point] is only going to be, eventually, for the rich,” he says. “The root of all evil in this is
 money, nothing else.”

In an opinion piece published by Fairfax Media, Pru Goward claimed that there is “no room for nostalgia” when discussing the fate of Millers Point. Goward cites what she believes to be only “short term anguish [the move] may cause some tenants”.

Barney doesn’t agree.

Barney Gardner, born and bred in Millers Point, but being moved out of the suburb as the NSW Government sells the community out from under him. IMAGE: Angela Nicholson.

“I remember one day they had about 10 kids in ‘em,” Barney says, describing the billy carts that he and his childhood friends used to race down some of Millers Point’s steepest hills. The carts were home-made, with timber from the wharves and metal ball bearings from the maritime machine shop.

 Barras, they were called. “There’s no footy oval, there’s no cricket pitch. So our playground was the streets,” Barney says.

Throughout its history, Millers Point’s wharf lineage has been its backbone. Wharf workers, including Barney’s father, used to make their way down onto Hickson Road at half-past six each morning to line up for work along ‘The Hungry Mile’, which leads from Walsh Bay to Darling Harbour.

Barney’s mother worked nearby in the wharf canteen. Her family was poor, as were most others in the suburb.

As a baby, Barney’s sister often slept in a dresser drawer. The Maritime Services Board owned much of the housing in Millers Point until an audit in the early 1980s made residents Housing Commission (now Housing NSW) tenants by default.

Barney, who has worked in the city council, in wool stores and with a local electrician, also ended up working in the waterfront around shipyards. “These houses were purposefully built for the maritime industry workers, people who worked in the wharves, went to sea, worked in stores, all manner of maritime industry,” he says.

Decades before his waterfront work, Barney and his childhood chums used to sneak past the wharf watchmen to get the best fishing spots. They would race their bikes around the streets of Millers Point, and learn to swim down at the Metal Wharf on Walsh Bay, which now houses offices and expensive condominiums.

“That was all our fun, and we wouldn’t swap it for anything else because it was really, really a good time,” he says. “A hard time but a good time.”

“It has been a wonderful life,” he says, before quickly self-countering. “It’s been hard... we’ve been blamed for a lot of things in this area since it first evolved, and one was the bubonic plague. Then they found out it was the fleas on the rats.... No one wanted to live here.”

The New South Wales state government has already begun searching for potential buyers for the high-value properties in and around Millers Point, asking for expressions of interest in both private and commercial circles. Beginning on the 13th May this year, the state government also began showing prospective one-bedroom public housing apartments to the Millers Points residents who are being moved out.

Between 10am and 12pm each Tuesday, in the Phillips Room of the Sirius building, the properties are shown on television screens. Residents interested in the apartments have to bid against each other, before the bids are collected and the winners drawn from a ballot.

Locals are calling it a “public housing lotto”. What’s more, if you miss the lotto the Housing department will decide where you’ll end up moving to.

The blue government-produced banner in the centre of the Phillips Room reads: My Property Choice.
Many Millers Point residents are concerned that a number of the places they’re being shown are in the Sydney suburb of Redfern, which has a crime rate well above the state average, while Millers Point is well below.

Yet, with over 57,000 people on the public housing waiting list, there’s a crucial unanswered question, “Why are they finding us places [to move to] but they can’t find people on the waiting list places?” Barney asks.
Barney wants to live out the rest of his life in Millers Point - to “age in place” is the phrase preferred by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore. Yet there’s an overarching fear that residents can only go along with the state government’s ‘decide what you want or we’ll decide for you’ proposal.

“We’re fearful that the vulnerable people will be signed up and put in one of these places, what we call ‘rat holes’,” Barney says with a smirk. The people who built Millers Point now feel as worthless as the rats who once caused them so much trouble.

Elderly locals are quietly gathering for Thursday lunch as I leave the Harry Jensen Activity Centre. Outside, on the painted wooden panels of the bus shelter, a message has been written in dark permanent marker.

“People before Profit!”

resourced: https://newmatilda.com/2014/08/16/millers-point-community-sale
 

Lend Lease baulking at providing affordable homes in Barangaroo

Nicole Hasham

August 15, 2014

Heritage rules scrapped for Millers Point buyers

Packer's casino approval one of the fastest in history

The prospect that lower-income earners could enjoy a pad at Barangaroo is in doubt after it emerged Lend Lease is wavering on a commitment to build affordable housing next to James Packer's luxury casino.

The change in stance follows an admission by the state government that a taskforce set up to help solve Sydney’s housing affordability crisis has not met for more than a year, or delivered the housing policy it promised, despite previously saying "doing nothing" was not an option.

Fairfax Media has learnt that Lend Lease has been eyeing off locations away from Barangaroo on which to build the affordable housing component it pledged in return for developing public harbourside land.

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Under current approvals for Barangaroo south, 2.3 per cent of 100,000 square metres of residential floor area must be “key worker housing” – homes rented to lower-income public sector workers such as police, nurses, teachers and paramedics.

However it has emerged Lend Lease has been in talks with not-for-profit housing groups about building the homes off-site – potentially allowing it to reap a greater profit from the Barangaroo residential floorspace.

It is understood the developer has considered nearby Millers Point as a potential site. The government is controversially relocating 465 public housing tenants from that suburb as part of a property sell-off.
A source at one community housing provider confirmed the organisation had met with Lend Lease, but questioned whether heritage restrictions at Millers Point would allow affordable housing development.

The source said there had always been questions over how affordable housing, which is often set as a percentage of market rent, would be provided at Barangaroo.

“If market rent is $1000 for a one-bedroom unit, 80 per cent of [that] is still not affordable,” the source said, adding “you’d have to have very small units”.
A Lend Lease spokesman confirmed it had held discussions with government agencies and community housing groups about off-site housing at Barangaroo, but no "deal" had been reached at Millers Point.

University of Sydney urban planning professor Peter Phibbs said the affordable housing commitment at Barangaroo was very low by international standards. If low-cost homes were to be built off-site, they should remain in the inner city, he said.

Professor Phibbs, a member of the affordable housing taskforce established in 2011, said the government had “basically given up on it”, adding “I wouldn’t describe it as active”.
A report by the taskforce in 2012 said Sydney faced an "acute" housing affordability issue and "doing nothing" was not an option.

A Planning Department spokesman did not explain why the taskforce had not met since June last year, nor why it had not delivered the policy it promised. He said affordable housing was being delivered under existing policies.

Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said Lend Lease would enjoy a "huge windfall" if it was allowed to dodge its affordable housing provision at Barangaroo. If the government “is going to let them get away with" building low-cost homes at Millers Point, the rent should be cheap enough to allow existing public housing tenants to live there, he said.

Resourced:  http://www.smh.Heritage rules scrapped for Millers Point buyerscom.au/nsw/lend-lease-baulking-at-providing-affordable-homes-in-barangaroo-20140815-1049rr.html

Lend Lease eyes Millers Point: report

Staff Reporter 15 Aug, 6:37 PM

Lend Lease could fill its requirements for low-cost housing associated with its Barangaroo project by buying a nearby row of terrace houses, according to The Australian Financial Review. 

According to the paper, Lend Lease is considering a $50 million purchase of terrace houses at Sydney's Miller Point, with sources saying discussion over a deal has been ongoing for several months.

Current plans require Lend Lease to set aside at least 10 per cent of its Barangaroo apartments to be sold at affordable prices to lower income earners.

A deal, which could see the developer pass on administration of the properties to a community housing provider, would enable it to shift lower priced properties away from its main Barangaroo site, the AFR reports.

Resoured: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/8/15/dataroom/lend-lease-eyes-millers-point-report