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Waterloo Relocations start in south west of estate

Waterloo South tenants living in the two block surrounded by John, Cope, McEvoy, and Mead Street to the South of the estate were hand delivered relocation notices on 27 February advising them that they will be relocated within the next six months.
Waterloo Relocations start in south west of estate

Waterloo South Homes NSW Stage 1 map

Here is the Waterloo South – stage 1 relocations map (PDF, 706 KB).

This is a copy of the Waterloo South - Stage 1 relocation letter and Factsheet tenants received. Each tenant was assigned a relocations officer in their letter who will work with them through the relocation process.
Letters were also sent to Waterloo South tenants not in Stage 1 advising they will not be moving now and that they will know more about the next stages of relocations over the next 2 years. Letters were also sent to Waterloo Central & Waterloo North tenants (6 high-rise buildings) reiterating that they will not be moved for at least 10 years.

Additional materials have been added to the Homes NSW Waterloo web site. These include:

Written materials

Relocation Explainer Videos:

Homes NSW should be congratulated for making sure the tenants being relocated were advised first. Before material was made public on the Homes NSW Waterloo website, the next to know were tenants outside the relocation area. For tenants this is a pleasant change from earlier media led announcements.

REDWatch Initial Comments on Relocations Announcement

The Stage 1 site currently covers 150 existing public housing units and includes the locations proposed in the planning controls for two 33 storey towers, the community centre, small park, part of the George Street retail strip and other buildings up to 13 storeys.

The community has not yet seen what the Stockland consortium has proposed to Homes NSW as part of its successful bid. Changes to the approved concept plan can be requested throughout future development applications as we have seen with Waterloo Metro. The next stage of planning is expected to be a Stage One DA setting the consortium’s proposal and the proposed locations of social, affordable and private housing. Hopefully the community will see what Stockland has suggested well before formal exhibition of a Stage One DA in 2026/27.

It is of concern that some tenants only received the letter and factsheet. It seems as if a flyer for services (provided by Kinchela, Counterpoint and Redfern Legal Service) that Council is funding to assist tenants through relocations was also not provided to those advised they were being relocated. The Homes NSW funded role for Redfern Legal Centre was mentioned in the Factsheet provided.

The Relocation and support guide released by Homes NSW on page 5 provides some demographic data on Waterloo South tenants. The report states that at January 2025 719 (of the 749) properties in Waterloo South were tenanted with 1,013 residents. Of these 75% were single persons, 60% were aged households with tenants aged 55+ (or 45+ for Aboriginal tenants) and 22% have lived in their homes for over 20 years.

The summary also states that 22% are Aboriginal, which is higher than the general Aboriginal figures often used for inner city public housing. The 2021 Census figures on where Aboriginal or Torres Straight Origin people usually live found 415 people lived in Redfern and 576 lived in Waterloo and Zetland. If the figures were comparable, it would indicate that up to 40% of Aboriginal people in Waterloo and Zetland live in Waterloo South. This underlines the importance of getting both social and affordable housing options in place to retain, and where possible, regrow a diverse Aboriginal Community in Redfern Waterloo.

REDWatch has concerns about the support aspects associated with the relocations as outlined in the relocation documents. The plan is very much built around the relocations officer helping people step by step through the household’s individual housing and supports needs.

As a result the Q&As throw no light on many of the policy questions raised by tenants around relocations. These broader policy questions are left to links and references to relevant policies rather than there being an attempt to construct Q&As that responded to the kinds of frequently asked questions (FAQ) raised by tenants in places like the Waterloo Redevelopment Group. In the absence of responses to FAQ Waterloo South tenants outside the first relocations area, who are without a relocations officer, are likely to continue to have those questions into the future while those facing relocations will not have had access to policy information before they sit down with their relocations officer.

While REDWatch welcomes that Homes NSW is providing resources for an independent tenant advocate, Homes NSW has resisted calls for providing additional social work support. Homes NSW seems to expect that this can be provided through the relocation officers and existing services. The Council’s support to three organisations during relocations is small and does not fill the gap.

Most local services are funded by DCJ for Targeted Early Intervention (TEI) for children and families, meaning they are not funded for most people in public housing who come looking for support. The Waterloo Human Services Collaborative has been trying to improve human service coordination and identify gaps in the human service system. We are aware from these meetings that access to supports for tenants are often problematic with multiple referrals before they find a service which then might have a long waiting list. This fractured service system is now expected to be the backstop for the Homes NSW relocations team. If the relocations team has such a magic wand then they need to join the Waterloo Human Service Collaborative and show others, including in Homes NSW, how to make the support system work!

Some time ago REDWatch, Council, DCJ and LAHC and other services were on the reference group for a Waterloo Health Impact Assessment (HIA) conducted by Sydney Local Health District. The study looked at research around the impact on public housing tenants arising from estate redevelopment. It focused on the period after the announcement through to relocations and recommended that action should be taken well before and during relocations. LAHC and DCJ were not happy with the results and even after they got agreement to change the recommendations, they stopped the report from being officially released. You can see an account of this from 17:23 to 21:05 minutes in on this recent talk on Designing Public Policy with David Lilley.

It is very difficult to have confidence in relocations planning where recommendations from a Health District HIA have been ignored. Like Brad Hazzard at NCIE we seem to be still in the “trust us we are really good at this” territory even if Homes NSW is doing some things it has not done before for Waterloo. It is hence not surprising that local community organisations are looking to restart a community lead Waterloo HIA to monitor the impacts of relocations and those that have just been told that they will find out more about when they have to move within the next two years.

Based on what has happened in other relocations, services know that death rates of older people go up around relocations. In Minto we understand that domestic violence rates went up and that people who were currently surviving in their current premises had to fall back on external services to replace what was being provided by their community. We also know that the stress and anxiety about the future manifests in many different ways. These broader impacts of relocations seem to be missing from the current Homes NSW individualistic relocations strategy.

REDWatch is further worried on the human services side that Homes NSW has not released a report it commissioned on responses to its People and Place Plan which was supposed to deal with the human services aspects of the redevelopment and inform the negotiations with the consortium. In the submissions seen by REDWatch, stakeholders raised many concerns in their submissions that remain unaddressed.

While REDWatch hopes that the relocation supports work as outlined in the released documents, we are not convinced that they will. We are sure that local human service bodies will be monitoring the process closely to identify issues that need to be addressed.

Action for Public Housing and Community Dignity Respect have issued a media release opposing the relocations and calling a media conference for 12 pm on Saturday outside Waterloo South Neighbourhood Centre, so media coverage is expected.. You can see that media release as part of Action for Public Housing’s event on Facebook.

REDWatch shares concerns about the impact of estate redevelopments and would prefer to see different approaches taken, however with the government committed to this redevelopment, our comments have primarily focused on what government is doing and how it is doing it.

Media Comment

 

Source: REDWatch Email Update 27 February 2025 and subsequent media