Inner City residents demand concrete affordable housing targets

Inner City residents demand concrete affordable housing targets

KENJI SATO

Affordable housing is urgently needed in the face of soaring house prices in the inner city, according to local residents and the REDWatch community group.

The concerns were raised last week at a REDWatch meeting in Waterloo, a suburb which has been slated for extensive redevelopments.

These include the demolition of two public housing towers in Waterloo, which are being cleared to make way for the construction of a Metro station and 10,000 new dwellings.

The redevelopments are part of the State Government’s “Future-Direction” overhaul of the social housing system, which will shift government-owned public housing into private and non-government organisation hands.

The NSW government has assured the community that there will be a mix of new private, social, and affordable housing, with no loss of social housing from the current 2000 dwellings.

But REDWatch coordinator Geoff Turnbull raised concerns about the lack of details surrounding affordable housing – such as what proportion of homes will be affordable housing, and just how “affordable” those houses will be.

“So far UrbanGrowth has put up no proposal for increasing affordable housing in the Central to Eveleigh corridor. The sale of government land without some form of inclusionary zoning or value capture for affordable housing should be resisted.”

“There have been government decisions around the social housing sphere based upon ideas that people are somehow going to transition from social housing into the private market, which is almost impossible in Sydney. And yet there have been no discussions around affordable housing,” he said.

Dr Louise Crabtree, senior research fellow at Western Sydney University, said that affordable housing was a “vital” stepping stone for people attempting to leave social housing.

“Not having housing choices can be really detrimental,” she said at the meeting.

“It will have an incredibly negative impact on people who think they’re going to have to leave an area and their access to their community if they try to improve their lives.”

Dr Crabtree said that local governments were often “hamstrung” when it came to providing affordable housing, because there were no state-mandated affordable housing targets.

She said that developers, such as Lend Lease and PAYCE, have been calling for concrete affordable housing policies and an audit of state land for the use of affordable housing.

“We’ve heard this from big developers, who are saying ‘we’re used to doing this internationally, we know how to cost this into our models, we’re just waiting for the state to show leadership, and we’re not seeing that leadership at a policy level.’ They’re operating in a wilderness at the moment.”

Dr Crabtree said that affordable housing targets were essential given the “rampant speculation” in Sydney’s housing market.

“The market is just not working. Historically, we could rely on supply and putting more and more housing on the outskirts of town, but it doesn’t work anymore. Demand is just too high and we’ve got so many investors. If we have targeted supply, then we can start addressing price.”

Geoff Turnbull said that there was also a need to dispel some of the myths surrounding affordable housing in order to prevent a “kneejerk reaction” from the community.

“We’ve seen a number of incidences were community has opposed affordable housing, and a number of affordable housing suppliers find themselves not so much part of the community, but often more on the development side of the equation.

“But people need to understand that this is housing for people who, overwhelmingly, are working and they just can’t afford to live in the area.”

One such person is Mel, an affordable housing tenant in Darlington and a single mother of two, who said that affordable housing had been a “lifesaver” for her.

At the REDWatch meeting, she said she had been on the verge of homelessness before she found an affordable housing slot.

“I couldn’t believe it. It actually didn’t sink in until I moved in. Because I was so worried that it was going to fall out underneath my feet,” she said.

“Everyone was telling me to go to live out west because it’s cheaper, but the problem is that my work’s in the city. I’ve done that in the past, travelling an hour or two hours at the start of each day. But I’ve got two children, and I’ve no family around to help me. I just can’t do it.”

Mel said that public housing was “not an option” for her, because she wanted her children to live in a working environment.

“Everyone’s in a similar boat. We’re all working people – none of us are wealthy, and none of us are poor and not wanting to be working. We’re all trying to get ahead in life, and we wanted to provide for our children well.”

 

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