Carolyn Ienna, Wiradjuri person and聽public聽housing聽tenant at 82 Wentworth Park Road Glebe and Karyn Brown from the Waterloo聽Public聽Housing聽Action Group were emotional as they told a rally they did not want be removed from their homes of several decades.
Brown asked several hundred people at the 鈥淗ousing for people, not profit鈥 rally on June 17 to imagine what it would feel like. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a good feeling,鈥 she said.
The protest, organised by Action for Public Housing (APH), heard from speakers before marching through the CBD chanting: 鈥淪ave Waterloo? Yes, we can!鈥, 鈥淪ave public housing? Yes, we can!鈥 and 鈥淔reeze rents? Yes, we can!鈥
Wiradjuri and Gamilaroi artist Lorna Munro gave the acknowledgement of country. Kristin O鈥機onnell from the Antipoverty Centre, Jenny Leong, Newtown Greens MP and Khanh Tran, Students Representative Council (SRC) disability officer at the University of Sydney (USyd), also spoke.聽Leong said the Greens would soon be introducing a bill to freeze rents.
A message from Vince Ashton, from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) Retired group and聽former New South Wales聽Builders Labourers Federation organiser, was read out.
Co-chairs Rachel Evans from APH and Ishbel Dunsmore, Education Officer at the USyd SRC said Gadi/Sydney is in the midst of one of the worst housing crises ever and the government must be forced to change its approach.
鈥淭he NSW and federal Labor Party鈥檚 plans are set to make this crisis worse,鈥 Evans said. 鈥淭he Housing Future Fund, if it gets up, will only fund homes for 12% of the 160,000 households on the public housing waiting list.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 need a future fund; we need a fund for the present!鈥 She said the NSW housing minister Rose Jackson must be held to her promise on public housing.
Commenting on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese鈥 announcement, Dunsmore said: 鈥淭his morning鈥檚 $2 billion announcement for a rapid social housing expansion is welcome, but nowhere near enough. Labor is running away from the platform it was elected on.
鈥淚t is utterly shameful that any mention of 鈥榟ousing as a human right鈥 has been struck from their [federal] new policy platform. We know that secure, safe, and affordable housing enables people 鈥 regardless of personal circumstance 鈥 to live with dignity.鈥
APH is calling for a freeze on rents, no privatisation and for more public housing to be built.
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.
The action was endorsed by: USyd聽SRC, Friends of Erskineville, Hands Off Glebe, Socialist Alliance, Better Planning Network, NSW Greens, GET A ROOM: Students for Affordable Housing, Anti-Poverty Centre, Friends of Ultimo, Australian Unemployed Workers Union, Tenants Union NSW聽and the National Tertiary Education Union NSW.
[A public forum 鈥淣o more demolitions! Alternatives to public housing redevelopment鈥 is being organised by Action for Public Housing on July 18, 6-8pm at Redfern Community Centre, Redfern.]
Video:聽Urgent message to PM Anthony Albanese: 'Give us the funds to end homelessness!'.聽