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RWA’s Draft Affordable Housing Plan questionable, says local activist

The RWA has asked for comment on its affordable housing plan for the Redfern-Waterloo area. Ross Smith responds in the South Sydney Herald of March 2007 and The South Sydney Herald invites you to go to the Redfern-Waterloo Authority’s website to read their affordable housing plan, then go to the REDWatch website and read some of the other responses. It’s your suburb, get involved. Read and respond. We invite your comments in our Letters page.

Ross Smith writes: “The low rate of levy proposed (1.25 %) significantly undercuts the rate levied in other areas of Sydney. This ‘gift’ to the development industry will, at best, provide 75 units of affordable housing of 100 square metres each for the operational area of the Redfern-Waterloo Authority (RWA) over the next ten to fifteen years. There is no obligation to pass the benefit onto the end users of the properties concerned

The location of these residences is subject to further investigations to be undertaken as part of the preparation of the to-be-announced Redfern-Waterloo Authority Affordable Housing Program.

The number of affordable housing units proposed (75) is very low when compared with the RWA’s proposal to introduce 3,200 new residents to the area. It goes nowhere near reducing, much less offsetting, the effect of gentrification which has been rampant in the last decade. Despite the fact that 1996 to 2001 was a period of significant growth in housing stock, there was a real decline in the proportion of dwellings that could be affordably purchased or rented by very low, low and moderate income households in the RWA’s operational area.

The reference to the supply of assistance to either would-be purchasers or renters by percentage is a misleading use of statistics, in that the figures quoted refer to the survivors of the policies overseen by the RWA and its immediate predecessor, the Redfern-Waterloo Premier’s Project. Furthermore, the percentages quoted are based on all the projected affordable housing supply being allocated entirely to one group or the other. The RWA Contribution Plan of November 2006 provides for a rate of levy that, when added to the low Affordable Housing Levy, brings the overall levy into line with charges in the surrounding areas.

The reasonable inference is that the RWA will promote the amount collected for community facilities and infrastructure as a success story for the RWA. This outcome will be compared to the outcomes achieved by consent authorities in the surrounding areas, whilst failing to mention the significant subsidy created by the lower Affordable Housing Levy in the RWA operational area.

The areas of North Eveleigh, the Australian Technology Park, and Redfern Railway Station are earmarked to receive the vast majority of the elevated Contribution Plan Levy monies. These are all areas under the stewardship and direct control of the RWA with the exception of Redfern Railway Station. The current community is being asked to finance the future community.

The use of a subsidy created by a low Affordable Housing Levy to meet State Rail’s refurbishment costs for Redfern Railway Station does not comply with the stated aim of the Affordable Housing Contribution Plan to supply affordable housing to offset the effects of gentrification on the RWA operational area.

To respond to a proposal requires that the proposal has been developed, has a solid base of data and contains specific detail. This Plan lacks both data and detail. There is no reference to a role for Inclusionary Zoning. Instead it contains reference to unknowns, including the Redfern-Waterloo Authority Affordable Housing Program.

It is to be hoped that the RWA will attend the forthcoming four-day Seminar on Affordable Housing Concepts, Strategies and Models being conducted by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, a body cited by the RWA as an authoritative body in the field of Affordable Housing and incorporate the absolutely current information into the final Plan.

Hopefully the Plan, when it finally goes on exhibition, will be open for comment and input for a longer and more suitable period than the Draft Plan was. This would reaffirm the RWA’s stated intent to seek public input in an open transparent manner into matters that impact on the community of the area and to give the input due consideration.    

Source: South Sydney Herald March 2007