I write to you about the need to address the human service integration issues facing
public housing in the lead up to the Waterloo master planning. We have not been
able to get this addressed in our conversations with your staff. LAHC staff
tell us it will be led by FACS but we have seen no recent progress.
You may recall
in early 2016, Minister Hazzard attended a public meeting at The Factory when,
REDWatch Co-ord member and subsequent City of Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor, Irene
Doutney raised the need for the redevelopment to deal with the problems in
human service integration for public housing tenants. The Minister agreed
this was crucial and it was followed up.
We subsequently
met with Mandy Young on a couple of occasions and held an initial workshop to
kick off a process in July 2016. However then Mandy left that position,
amalgamations happened and other staff we had worked with, such as Brett Louat,
also left. Michael Shreenan, the EO of Counterpoint, and Charmaine Jones, the
EO of Inner Sydney Voice, have been attempting to progress the Waterloo human
services discussion within FACS without success. The result is that there has
been no progress on the human services integration discussion since July 2016.
This is not new
for Redfern and Waterloo. When The Department of Premier and Cabinet’s Redfern
Waterloo Partnership Project place management team came into the area in 2001,
it was to try to address human services concerns. The RWA and a couple of human
service plans later, human service co-ordination was wound up with the RWA and
its Human Services Ministerial Advisory Committee (HSMAC) disbanded.
We pushed again
to get some attention around human service co-ordination when police and health
were at loggerheads over the needle-dispensing machine in Redfern, but failed
to get the agencies, which came around that table on that issue, to connect to
the broader on-the-ground issues and problems that human service agencies were
facing.
With the
Waterloo master plan we are reminded of one of Ross Smith’s favourite sayings –
“I haven’t met an anti-social building yet”. The master plan looks primarily at
social housing through a bricks and mortar lens but public housing also
includes the people. Many are people with high and complex needs who need an
integrated human services program in place to allow them to achieve a
successful tenancy and to allow their neighbours to have quiet enjoyment of
their tenancies. This applies equally to tenants now and will be that much more
acute, in our view, if they are living in 3.5 times greater densities than
exist at present in Waterloo. REDWatch has long argued that a redevelopment in
Waterloo cannot succeed if it does not involve a robust integrated human
services program however while the master plan studies are under way the
arguably more difficult human services discussion is nowhere to be seen.
We are aware of
the suggestion that broader human service co-ordination discussions at state
and regional level could be extended to include a local element covering
Waterloo but we have been unable to finds out how this might operate or address
our concerns. We are concerned that starting from the state level and working
down may take a long time to get to the on the ground issues that need to be
addressed. The built environment planning could well be finalised without the
necessary human services plan.
We would like
to suggest an alternative approach. We would like to see a place-based look at
the human service issues in Waterloo with a view to implementing processes that
will address the problems identified. This would address what needs to happen
to improve human services coordination for public tenants now, as well as into
the future when Waterloo is redeveloped. It should also highlight the
on-the-ground issues that need to be considered in state-wide and regional
human services planning especially around social housing estates.
While we have
had no traction with FACS in this discussion, we have been working with local
agencies like Counterpoint, Inner Sydney Voice and Sydney Local Health District
around health issues in Waterloo. This will see SLHD employ a health link
worker to help connect across their silos in Waterloo, an equity-focused Health
Impact Assessment and a Waterloo health forum in late September.
We are also in
discussion with the City of Sydney about the need for robust human service
approaches to be developed in conjunction with the master plan.
We are of the
view that the Health initiatives provide an ideal opportunity for FACS and LAHC
to work with Health and other human services players locally to explore how the
human services system can be better co-ordinated to deliver wrap-around
responsive services for the people with high and complex needs who are given
priority access to Waterloo public housing.
We are also of
the view that this discussion needs to involve not only State human service
providers, but also on the ground input from NGOs and ideally, like the RWA
HSMAC, also include Federal service providers. This is especially so with gaps
potentially emerging with the move of aged and disability services from the
state to the federal government. Social housing has a concentration of people
who are potentially impacted by these changes and by any failure of new federal
programmes to fully mesh with state services to provide wrap around support.
We would be
happy to meet and discuss this proposal with you and to work with FACS, LAHC,
other human service providers and our partner local agencies to help put
together a robust human services plan for Waterloo social housing that works
for tenants with high and complex needs now and into the future.
For REDWatch
however time is of the essence as we could not support a master plan for
Waterloo without a comprehensive human services plan accompanying it.
Kind Regards,
Geoff
Geoffrey Turnbull
REDWatch Co-Spokesperson