REDWatch Analysis on Millers Point

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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:

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