600 Elizabeth St, Redfern: Clover Moore, REDWatch call for more social housing

The potential sale of a former public housing block which is set to be developed into a mixture of private and social housing has received community backlash.

The potential sale of public land in Redfern has been met by community resistance, with campaigners urging the state government to reconsider the sale and boost the amount of social and affordable housing.

600 Elizabeth St — adjacent to the suburb’s historic Redfern Oval — is earmarked for sale by the NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) which is seeking a development partner for more than 300 new homes at the site, a minimum of 30 per cent of which will be social housing.

From the online petition, an outline of the site up for sale and redevelopment. Picture: Action for Public Housing

The planning controls the City of Sydney council prepared for the site were finalised and put in place by the NSW Government on Friday, which allowed for a rise in potential building height and floor space as long as there was a guarantee of at least 30 per cent social and affordable housing and a new community recreation facility would be delivered.

“Without these planning controls, the land could have been sold and developed entirely for market housing, with no social or affordable housing included,” a City of Sydney spokeswoman said.

Public housing at 600 Elizabeth St was demolished back in 2013 and previously the LAHC proposed retaining public ownership of the land and developing a mix of social and market-rate ‘build-to-rent’ apartments.

What the redevelopment would add to Redfern's skyline.

However, the LAHC backflipped and instead decided to put the land up for sale.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore cited the redevelopment at Cowper St, Glebe — which changed from a mixed-tenure to 100 per cent social homes — as the ideal route.

“Last year the state government moved to deliver much-needed social housing in Cowper St, and we supported that in every way we could,” Ms Moore said.

An artist's impression of the redevelopment.

“A similar outcome is needed at 600 Elizabeth Street if the government is to demonstrate it is taking the current housing crisis seriously.”

Community groups are not pleased with the downgrading in the amount of social and affordable housing, as well as the sale of the land.

“One of the prime issues is that public-housing land is being broken up and sold-off to fund the replacement of public housing,” Geoffrey Turnbull, co-spokesman for Redfern-based community group REDWatch, said.

“The problem is the state government’s policy of not investing in new social housing, and expecting that it will be self-funded by the sell-off of existing public land.”

A potential view of Redfern Oval from the redevelopment on the site.

A petition on The Action Network — created by the Action for Public Housing Group — noted that over 1000 people in the inner city are on the social-housing waiting list.

“The underlying issue is that the social-housing waiting list is growing,” Mr Turnbull said.

“Just being on the waiting list isn‘t sufficient to be able to get you in, you basically have to have other issues associated with that to gain priority.”

The sale of the land also worries REDWatch.

“What‘s going to happen when down the pipeline we need a new school, or similar, in the area,” Mr Turnbull asked.

“So that’s another whole problem: when the land’s gone, it’s gone.”

The LAHC was contacted for the story but chose not to provide a comment.