MEDIA RELEASE: SAVE WATERLOO: STOP THE BULLDOZERS. Refurbish, don’t demolish

MEDIA CONFERENCE Monday May 11, 10am at proposed demolition site - 63 McEvoy Rd, Waterloo

Contact Rachel Evans 0403 517 266 or Karyn Brown 0432 409 711

NSW Labor is promising to demolish the Waterloo South public housing estate blocks at the end of May.

Residents, housing activists, unionists, anti-poverty campaigners, Greens MPs and socialists are demanding the NSW ALP stop its plan to demolish and privatise Waterloo.

Karyn Brown, Waterloo South resident and Action for Public Housing spokesperson said, “More than 150 dwellings in the Cope Street and George Street Waterloo low-rise apartment blocks are to be destroyed: 130 of these are imminent and 20 in 12-15 months. Another 100 residents in Cope Street were given eviction notices in March. Many of these people are long-term residents of Waterloo. This is being done in a housing crisis, which is getting worse.”

NSW Labor promised residents in 2023, before being elected, that it would save Waterloo’s public homes. It also pledged not to sell off public assets.

Karyn Brown continued, “we want Labor to revisit those promises and not hand over what is not yours to the private developer Stockland, which plans to build 1500 luxury apartments. Of those only 600 will be “affordable homes” — set at 80% of market rent — which means they will not be really affordable.”

Rachel Evans, Action for Public Housing said, “We saw at Wagga Wagga the tragic outcome of the government-led housing crisis. At a time when more than 68,000 people are on the waiting list in NSW for public housing, over 35,000 people are homeless and some 300,000 homes sit empty every night across the state, there are plenty of other humane options than demolishing well-built public housing.”

The press conference is calling on Labor to back away from bringing bulldozers into Waterloo.

Jenny Leong said, “In opposition, NSW Labor called the Coalition’s plans to bulldoze Waterloo and evict the thousands who live there “disgraceful” and promised residents they would fight to save their homes. Their backflip now that they’re in government is an unforgivable betrayal of these residents and a reminder that the modern Labor party is a pathetic neoliberal husk of what it once was.”

A Labor for Ending Homelessness Inner West spokesperson said, “Labor for Ending Homelessness Inner West commends community efforts to stop the demolition of the Waterloo South public housing blocks. Australia is facing a housing and homelessness crisis. We need to be building more public housing rather than tearing it down.”

Denis Doherty said “All of Sydney wants affordable housing now. Building and extending public housing is the best step to do this.Raiding and refurbishing existing public housing estates is the wrong policy. More people are thrown onto the waiting list rather than the reverse.”

Karyn Brown concluded, “state and federal governments’ so-called housing solutions are just about giving developers more land, more resources, more luxury apartment opportunities. It’s not about housing us. The 2023 Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) of $10 billion has only built 6,000 social and affordable homes. Then they give $368 billion to the United States for weapons and war. They’d rather kill people than house us. Here’s the solution: renovate Waterloo and other public housing, don’t demolish it. Stop AUKUS, build beautiful public housing en masse.”

[i] Homes NSW told residents in a Waterloo Redevelopment Group meeting on April 15 that demolition will start in late May.

Speaking at the Press Conference: Karyn Brown (Action for Public Housing) Jenny Leong (NSW Greens), Adrienne Shilling (Save Warren Road/Better Future Coalition), Denis Doherty (Hands Off Glebe), Andrew Chuter (Friends of Erskineville)

Action for Public Housing and others are organising a protest on Sunday May 24, 3pm, starting at the corner of Redfern and Regent St, Redfern and will end at McEvoy Street and Botany Road, Waterloo. Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/823158467075034

Press Conference and protest organised by Action for Public Housing, Better Future Coalition, Renters and Housing Union, Maritime Union Sydney, Hands Off Glebe, NSW Socialist Alliance, NSW Greens, Grassroots Action Sydney. Endorsed by Labor for Ending Homelessness Inner West