Around 150 residents joined a public meeting at The Factory in Waterloo on Thursday 11^th February, to voice their concerns about the future of public housing in Waterloo.

The cause of concerns is the announcement by the NSW Government late last year that two thousand Waterloo public housing residences will be demolished to make way for a development built around the new metro train station.

Today the NSW Government has announced a Sydney Metro station at Waterloo.

Member for Newtown Jenny Leong says that it’s reasonable that the local community has concerns about the implications of the decision, particularly around public and affordable housing, and transport accessibility.

NSW Greens Member for Newtown Jenny Leong, which covers the Redfern area, and Jan Barham, Housing spokesperson have responded to today’s announcement that a private Metro station will be built in Waterloo highlighting the serious housing concerns.

Two thousand existing public housing residences will be demolished to make way for the development.

Member for Newtown Jenny Leong says:

“The announcement by the state Government today will see Urban Growth taking over the development of large parts of our Redfern/Waterloo public housing community. This is cause for serious concern – not because redevelopment of public housing isn’t needed, but because Urban Growth’s track record in our area has seen some pretty devastating outcomes – including the selloff of the Australian Technology Park site and massive proposed overdevelopment at North Eveleigh.

“While we acknowledge the Government’s commitment that the number of social housing dwellings will be maintained in the new development, we need to ensure that these dwellings will continue to house the same number of residents.

“We have seen cases of redevelopment of public housing where the number of dwellings has been maintained but with a significant reduction in size. As a minimum we need a commitment that there will be no reduction in the number of bedrooms or number of residents that can be housed.

Today we called on the Government take steps to address antisocial behaviour in public housing without making vulnerable people homeless.