Guildford-South Granville residents the poorest in NSW
A high homeless rate and the number of asylum seekers has contributed to Guildford and South Granville being named the most economically disadvantaged area in NSW.
Parramatta
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More than 5000 people in Guildford and South Granville are living in poverty and the state and federal governments are being urged to help “pick up the slack”.
The call from Cumberland Mayor Steve Christou comes as the NSW Council of Social Service research showed 28.3 per cent (5100 people) in that neighbourhood are estimated to be living in economic disadvantage, making it the state’s worst off financially.
Cr Christou, whose council has the highest number of asylum seekers in Australia, was not surprised at the research, conducted by NATSEM at the University of Canberra.
“This has been going on for decades,’’ he said.
“We are one of the most multicultural regions in NSW, if not Australia.
“We know from first-hand stories that many in our community have already lost everything, fleeing persecution and war in their home country, separated from family and arriving in Australia already incredibly vulnerable and without support.”
He said the Federal Government had cut the Status Resolution Support Scheme, which saw about 3500 people in NSW lose access to the program and were more at risk of homelessness and destitution.
Behind Sydney City, the Cumberland community has the highest rate of homelessness in the state.
“A chronic shortage of affordable and available rental housing, a lack of social housing, mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, domestic and family violence, can all play a role in becoming homeless,’’ Cr Christou said.
At the recent Local Government NSW Conference, the council called for the State Government to take urgent action to assist community organisations that were being overwhelmed in assisting the homeless.
“We’re left to clean up the slack,’’ Cr Christou said.
“It’s not being fairly evenly dispersed across Sydney.
“We want the state and federal governments to contribute to a range of actions that will address the homelessness crisis, including funding for local government to deliver initiatives at the local level.’’
Granville state Labor MP Julia Finn said it was the responsibility of state and federal governments to ensure prosperity was shared evenly throughout Sydney not “concentrated in the leafy suburbs of the lower north shore and those suburbs hugging the city”.
“The State Liberal Government is not doing enough to service and help low-income communities like those in Guildford and South Granville, and we see the results of this neglect born out in the NSW Council of Social Service research,” she said.
McMahon federal Labor MP Chris Bowen said he was deeply concerned about the high rates of disadvantage in western Sydney.
“Australians are struggling, the economy is growing at its slowest pace in a decade, wages are stagnant, and the people are getting no help from the Morrison Government,’’ he said.
“The cost of living, particularly when it comes to energy prices and out of pocket medical costs, only add to this disadvantage for people in western Sydney and the government has no plan to address any of these issues.”
He said cutting the Status Resolution Support Scheme would only make these problems worse.
“Cutting payments for these vulnerable people will cause more hardship and disadvantage,’’ he said.
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