Sydney’s “black heart” to keep beating

BY ALEXANDER LEWIS

Funding for Aboriginal housing on the Block has been secured after more than a year of lobbying by the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

A deal was finally struck last week between the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) and the Federal Government, which has allocated $5 million to fund the construction of 62 affordable Aboriginal dwellings on the site.

The funding will allow the AHC to obtain a bank loan to meet the other $25 million required for the housing, which was previously reliant on the commercial redevelopment of AHC land.

The AHC confirmed support on principles for the government offer via a letter to the Prime Minister’s office on Monday.

“We are interested in the underpinning financial modelling which shows that a grant of $5 million would be enough to ensure that the affordable housing component of the Pemulwuy Project is viable and attractive to lenders,” the letter read.

The agreement came just days after the tent embassy was ordered by the Supreme Court to vacate the land.

Protestors had been squatting on the vacant lot ever since the AHC told its former residents that dedicated indigenous housing could not be funded until it built a shopping centre and student accommodation.

Tent embassy founder Jenny Munro said in an interview on ABC News 24 that she was now confident The Block would retain its purpose as affordable Aboriginal accommodation..

“With this federal intervention and the offer of $5 million, we will see housing being built here. With the [Aboriginal] Housing Company plans, that was never ever an option from the start. It would’ve happened 10 or 15 years down the track,” Ms Munro said.

“I think it’s a great moral victory for our community. and it’s a very iconic piece of land that our people consider to be sacred.”

In the 1970’s the then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam granted the AHC funds to purchase houses and land for the Aboriginal community.