We are all aware of the current housing affordability crisis being faced by people, young and old, trying to buy a home. This process has never been easy, but today it seems more difficult than ever, with the ideal of home ownership for most of us fast fading into the distance like a mirage in the desert. Governments of all tiers, and the media, keep this issue firmly front of mind and, rightly so, but it seems they are toothless tigers, content to sit and watch.
What is not so obvious, but still just as urgent, is the constant and creeping decrease in cheap and affordable housing for low-income earners and those with no income, such as pensioners.
The common scenario goes something like this: a solid and secure apartment building, though maybe not so “flash”, that has been a home for years to low income residents (individuals, families) is suddenly announced as a development site, with the claim that this will “beautify” the surrounding neighbourhood with a new block of “luxury apartments”. This can happen either by existing strata owners banding together to sell their properties to a developer at a profit (NSW strata law requires 75% of existing owners to agree to sell off their asset) or by the individual or company that owns the entire building deciding to sell.
The problem is that these developments grab a block of, say, 40 existing apartments – but their new design might accommodate only 12 or 15 apartments! In financial parlance, this will be a “net loss” of maybe 25 apartments; but, in human terms, 25 individuals or families will lose their homes. It is a sad reality that should make us all angry, but it seems to be “off the radar” of government – whether Federal, State or local – which fail to do anything about it, despite their crocodile tears and constant hand-wringing about a ‘housing crisis’.
And what happens to the long-term residents who will be turfed out through this development? The reality is that the rents for the new “luxury” homes will be impossible to meet. If they are lucky, they get to move hundreds of kilometres from the friends and neighbourhood they’ve nurtured – and that’s nurtured them – for years, sometimes decades, sometimes their whole life. If they are unlucky, they might end up in a single room in a boarding house, or on a park bench, or a doorway, or their car.
The 2011 Residents’ Association views this as a serious and growing housing problem that seems swept under the carpet while the focus is on stellar housing prices and “record breaking” latest real estate sales.
Because of this, as a service to our members, we will now track and publish on our website Development Applications that create a loss of affordable housing in our precinct. We will include the date of application of the DA, the serial number of the application, location address of the property, current number of flats/units, the proposed number of flats/units, and the total loss of homes. Where appropriate, our Association will send to Council an objection to the DA based on the total loss of homes, emphasising the serious impact this will have on existing low-income residents in our area.
We urge visitors to this website to also consider sending in individual objections to these proposed developments.
Until there is a genuine, practical and sympathetic response from government and planning departments to this issue of “creating homelessness”, we will continue to monitor this situation and keep our members and website visitors updated, and oppose these greedy DAs.
Credit: “Upcoming projects” image published on our homepage under this CC License
2011 Residents' Association 
