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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/20/millers-point-sydney-housing
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Sydney must not become an enclave for the rich | Sydney must not become an enclave for the rich |
(5 months later) | |
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. | 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. | |