By Leesha McKenny
The sweeping view from John Noriega's 28th-storey apartment gives him a clear vantage of the waves of development rolling across Sydney's skyline.
Now, after almost two decades, that change is coming to him.
John Noriega, a Waterloo public housing resident in the Matavai tower, threw his letter in the bin and doesn't want to move.Credit: Cole Bennetts
The 68-year-old's home – the Matavai public housing tower that looms large over inner Sydney – is firmly in the sights of the state government and its plans to redevelop Waterloo alongside a new metro train station.
On Thursday, about 4000 residents across the estate's patchwork of high-rise towers, walk-up flats and single-storey dwellings received a letter from Social Housing Minister Brad Hazzard heralding a "dynamic new community" that would emerge over the next 20 years as part of the redevelopment plans.
Waterloo resident Tara Wallis, her partner Jed Jackson and 19-month-old son Malakye Jackson. Ms Wallis is keen to stay, particularly in better housing.Credit: Cole Bennetts
Mr Noriega threw his letter in the bin.
"I don't want to move," said 68-year-old, who is known to many in the neighbourhood – including the lorikeets that flock to his loungeroom window. "I'll die here if I can."
The letter's assurance that tenants could all remain at Waterloo, or return to the site after moving "on an interim basis into other housing in the local area", was greeted with suspicion by nearby resident Walter Murray.
"It's just a letter, that's all it is – with useless words on it," he said.
Waterloo public housing resident Walter Murray with Rose Dodson and Mr Murray's dog Scrappydoo. Mr Murray has greeted the plans with suspicion.Credit: Cole Bennetts
Equally keen to stay was Tara Wallis, who nonetheless welcomed the letter's promise to replace the ageing buildings with better social housing, alongside private housing and affordable dwellings.
"These buildings, they're actually good to go," she said of her walk-up. The building was so riven by water damage, she said, that she was routinely forced to clean the mould from the walls of the flat she shared with her partner and young son.
Shelter NSW's executive officer Mary Perkins said the redevelopment of Waterloo would be a plus "if it maintains and grows the social housing in the area and brings new affordable rental housing".
"If it simply gentrifies the area and displaces poorer folk, then that is a negative for the city as a whole," she said.
The "yuppies" he observed buying up Redfern were less of a concern for Mr Noriega – as long as he could live alongside them.
"I don't mind," the former boilermaker said. "I don't mind anyone."