City of Sydney to introduce ‘voice’ for public housing tenants
City of Sydney Council will develop a ‘public housing tenant voice’ to allow public and social housing tenants to have a say on the redevelopment of major housing sites across the city.
Central Sydney
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A Sydney councillor’s call to rollout a ‘public housing tenant Voice’ has been carried unanimously.
City of Sydney Councillor Sylvie Ellsmore called for plans to allow public and social housing tenants to have a say on the redevelopment of major housing sites across the city at a council meeting.
Cr Ellsmore said she plans to bring better protections for public housing tenants to the council after seeing protections established in London.
“Public housing tenants currently have no rights due to a lack of legislation and policy which differentiates overseas, particularly London, where they’ve embedded tenants rights through rules,” she said.
“There’s a huge amount of anxiety that public housing tenants experience when there’s a massive development that goes over the top of everybody, which is what the state governments currently doing with Waterloo where they are kicking people out and they don’t know if they can come back”.
The call comes as the NSW Government plans to redevelop a large number of public housing estates in the City of Sydney Local Government Area, including 82 Wentworth Park Rd Glebe, the Waterloo Estate (South) and Explorer Street South Eveleigh.
Cr Ellsmore was also ‘enlightened’ by plans in London where council planning documents such as ‘Better Homes for Local People: the Mayor’s Good Practice Guide to Estate Regeneration (2018)’ require a ballot or referendum of public tenants to be undertaken to approve plans to redevelop their estates.
This is where refurbishment is prioritised over demolition and tenants have a right of return to their original homes once they have been upgraded.
The motion by Cr Ellsmore called for the chief executive to provide advice to council to create obligations through council documents which promote and protect public housing tenant’s voices and rights in relation to renovation or development of public housing estates they live in.
Cr Ellsmore said she hopes the voice will “give more people security”.
The motion was carried unanimously at council’s meeting on November 20.
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