It is hence
important that tenants and services review this draft and comment on any
omissions or proposed responses to issues of concern. The current Waterloo
Human Services Collaborative Action Plan deals only with human services issues
currently impacting tenants. The People and Place Plan needs to deal with all
the additional issues that might impact tenants as a result of the
redevelopment. It also needs to show how this plan interacts with ongoing
aspects of the Collaborative’s Action Plan.
On a
preliminary read the draft plan does not appear to cover all key concerns
raised during consultations nor deal adequately with the interactions between
what is happening within the redevelopment area and the rest of the Waterloo
public housing. Local service providers are expected to support many actions in
areas that they are not currently funded for. Expecting service providers to
provide activities at night for example, will require additional funding from
elsewhere even if they were funded to do it during the day. Unless Homes NSW
decided to start funding NGOs to support public housing tenants it is difficult
to see how parts of the plan will succeed.
DCJ funded
Targeted Early Intervention (TEI) services, which include NGO community centres
are already under pressure for providing services to public housing tenants without
young children, and have been told for some time there are no additional
government funds for community centre activities. How Council will fund these
kinds of services in its Community Centre also remains to be seen given that
Council does not run this kind of service elsewhere.
An awful lot
seems to be left up to the Community Housing Provider (CHP) and the Developer
to deliver without there being any indication that there are sufficient
resources in the contract to deliver the ongoing services and activities. There
is no indication of how some expected dislocations in the community are to be
handled. For example there currently exists a single social housing tenant
voice in the form of Waterloo Neighbourhood Advisory Board. CHP tenants have
previously been excluded from NABs and TPCE support because the CHP is expected
to deliver these services and a unified social housing voice is likely to be
lost. This might make sense for housing standards and maintenance but not for
wider NAB activities like the NAB’s Waterloo Safety Action Group.
It is also
unclear how the Plan interacts with the current Waterloo Human Services work
even though this work is acknowledged. The problems do not go away just because
a Community Housing Provider (CHP) takes over managing some tenants from Homes
NSW. The CHP will need to become involved in the Collaborative at some point
and be part of the place based human service plan and its aspirations to
improve services for social housing tenants.
REDWatch is
in the early stages of identifying areas of concern and we welcome input from
tenants, agencies and the wider community on your concerns.
REDWatch has subsequently made some additional comments on this plan in the South Sydney Herald Can the Waterloo South People and Place Plan deliver?