Media release
21 November 2019
Prince’s Trust Plan for Glebe Rejected
With homelessness up 13% and the waiting list for public housing blown out to 60,000, Hands off Glebe Inc is appalled by an agreement between NSW Land and Housing Corporation and Prince’s Trust Australia to build 75 affordable, social and private homes over two blocks next to Wentworth Park in Glebe.
The present buildings are on public land and are neither old nor in complete disrepair. They already house people and housed even more before the NSW Government gradually cleared them out.
NSW Property Minister Melinda Pavey said the agreement will deliver new housing for the most vulnerable. Apparently, the Prince’s Trust is going to evict vulnerable people from the buildings in order to help other vulnerable people. The result will be less public housing units than at present.
Cutting public housing and alienating public land in the midst of a housing crisis is a serious breach of the NSW Government’s responsibilities.
The Berejiklian Government claims that the Australian arm of a charity founded by the Prince of Wales aims to create a mixed-income community. However, the area is already mixed as the proposed development is close to Westend, a new development where penthouses are selling for $2 million.
It is clear that mixed-income development is really a code word for gentrification of our suburb or social cleansing.
Hands off Glebe Inc demands that the whole site remains dedicated entirely to the public housing which is so urgently needed.
