RALLY: Join us to demand housing action on 17 June at Sydney Town Hall
FREEZE RENTS ++ BUILD PUBLIC HOUSING ++ STOP PRIVATISATION
WHAT: Rally to defend and extend public housing
WHEN: 1pm Saturday 17 June 2023
WHERE: Sydney Town Hall
NSW is facing a severe housing crisis. Rents have risen by nearly 20% in Sydney in the past 12 months and more in many regional areas. Public housing waiting lists have grown by 15% while the stock of public housing grew by less than 1%. Homelessness is rising around the country while more than a million homes sit empty on any given night.
Neither State nor Federal Labor governments have plans to end the housing crisis. They have no plan to stop rising rents and nor build public housing for the hundreds of thousands of people who need it.
The Albanese Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund will barely scratch the surface, aiming to fund homes for just 12% of households currently on a public housing waiting list. The Minns Government has taken the positive step of halting the privatisation of public housing but it is unclear whether this extends to the previous government’s plans to demolish and privatise estates in Waterloo, Riverwood, Coffs Harbour, South Eveleigh and Glebe. They are still yet to announce any targets for new public housing.
We say enough. Housing is a human right.
We are a coalition of public and private renters, mortgagees, homelessness advocates and working-class communities demanding the government:
Freeze & lower rents and end no-grounds evictions now! Tax vacant homes and short term rentals to force them onto the long-term rental market.
Build more public housing! Eliminate homelessness and the waiting list and make public housing a genuine alternative to the private rental market. Acquire NRAS homes, fix vacant public housing and other government-owned homes, and build 100,000 public homes in NSW over the next 4 years.
Stop privatising public housing! Don’t demolish it -- repair, refurbish and renovate public housing. Keep public housing under public management and reverse the outsourcing to community housing organisations.
Endorsed by: Sydney University Student Representative Council, Friends of Erskineville, Hands Off Glebe, Socialist Alliance, Better Planning Network, NSW Greens, GET A ROOM: Students for Affordable Housing, Antipoverty Centre, Friends of Ultimo and Australian Unemployed Workers Union.
Action for Public Housing is a grassroots community organisation of public housing tenants and supporters.
Media contact: Rachel Evans, 0403 517 266, actionforpublichousing@gmail.com
Alternative contact: 0413 261 362
facebook.com/actionforpublichousing
instagram.com/action4publichousing
