Martin Place homeless: Our tax dollars pay for down-and-outs’ four-star stays
EXCLUSIVE: TAXPAYERS are forking out thousands of dollars to house homeless people in four-star hotels and hostels after they were kicked out of the financial heart of Sydney to clear the way for a skyscraper.
NSW
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TAXPAYERS are forking out thousands of dollars to house homeless people in four-star hotels and hostels after they were kicked out of the financial heart of Sydney to clear the way for a multimillion-dollar skyscraper.
Officers from the Department of Family and Community Services and NSW Housing have moved to temporarily house more than 100 members of the now dismantled Martin Place camp in the four-star, $174-per-night Ibis hotel overlooking Darling Harbour, as well as in other hotels, hostels and motels in the city.
The makeshift shelter, in the shadows of Social Housing Minister Pru Goward’s offices, sprang up six months ago but was swept away at the weekend by Clover Moore’s City of Sydney council, which ruled it a “public nuisance” and a fire and safety risk.
Authorities have spent weeks directing the city’s destitute into the Ibis, complete with access to swimming pool, gym and personal flatscreen TVs, as well as the 3½-star Ibis Hotel in Darlinghurst and three-star Central Private Hotel in Surry Hills, which costs $100 per night.
Despite the camp being shifted on Saturday, a gaggle of homeless people are still sleeping rough on the pedestrian mall outside the Reserve Bank building, where a 24-hour soup kitchen operates.
Adam Armstrong, 38, who has been sleeping rough for seven years, said that overnight he had become a “housing priority” and is now staying at Darlinghurst’s Ibis Hotel. “Christmas has come early, I’ve been on the housing list for years but now I’ve got a roof over my head at the Ibis. I’ve got a TV and my phone. I’m not too lonely, but it would nice to have a lady in there for company,” he said.
“The housing people said they want to give me permanent housing in a few weeks, I’m over the moon.”
Ricky Mates was told on Saturday he could check into the Ibis Darling Harbour for five days. “The fridge is mini, but the shower is nice and I can see out onto the Harbour, it’s beautiful,” he said.
Darren Bloomfield, 49, an indigenous artist, has been staying at the three-star Sydney Lodge Motel in Edgecliff at a cost to taxpayers per night of $155.
“I’ve been told this is home for seven nights, or longer, until I get the keys to my permanent home in Glebe,” he said.
“I’ve been homeless for 10 years and living at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra for years and in parks and sleeping on the street. Overnight I was told I was on the priority list and could be housed, it was bloody swift. But temporary housing is a waste of money, it’s a gloss-up for the government to get us off Martin Place so it can build its new development.
“Putting us up in hotels for a few weeks means we’re back on the streets again when it’s time to check out — what’s the point?”
Construction giant Lendlease needs to clear Martin Place to erect a flagship $300 million 33-storey skyscraper for co-owners Investa and the Gwynvill Group, replacing the tower formerly occupied by Westpac. When word spread weeks ago that the homeless were being moved into hotels to make way for the development, homeless people from Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane hitched rides to queue along Martin Place to secure rooms.
“There were more than 300 queuing to get hotels,” camper Salvatore Migenta, 64, said. “Martin Place was packed from Phillip St to Macquarie St. The hotels were booked and people were staying in expensive ones and now they are putting people up in cheaper ones. It was crazy.”
Self-appointed camp organiser Lanz Priestley pitched up in Martin Place in December, attracting more than 65 people, at times 100 a night, to the shelter within weeks.
“We’re not going anywhere until everyone is housed,” he said. “Pru (Goward) thinks we’re an eyesore when she looks out of her office window but homelessness doesn’t have a postcode.
“Getting the homeless into hotels is a part-victory, but this is about long-term and permanent housing.”
City of Sydney staff say they will continue to work with the NSW Department of Family and Community Services to ensure rough sleepers are offered accommodation, health care and specialised services. A spokeswoman said: “Many people have accepted the offer, while others have declined. No one was asked to move on from the area. Homelessness is not illegal.”
‘Mayor’ fights for his people
A SOON-TO-BE father of 12 dubbed the Mayor of Martin Place has vowed to keep battling for the city’s homeless despite sealing hotel spots for displaced campers.
“Getting the campers into hotels and long-term housing is a partial victory but it’s nowhere near a long-term solution,” Lanz Priestly, whose partner Nina Wilson, 20, is expecting his 12th child within weeks, told The Daily Telegraph.
“This is about getting people off the streets for good so that our grandchildren don’t have to go through what we have.”
Mr Priestley, originally from New Zealand, said he sold his own home in the eastern suburbs 20 years ago so he could give his own children, the eldest is 47, deposits to buy houses.
He has set up squats in cities around the world including London and Brazil: “They used to last up to 16 years but now you get moved on in three months. Squatting is passe, now we head into the financial districts to make a point.”
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