NSW - Public housing for private profit?

For more than 100 years, government-funded public housing has been available to low income earners in NSW.

Government-owned estates provided working class people, the elderly, new immigrants, young families, and working people in low-income, essential services the opportunity to live in our cities and regional centres, and participate in their local communities.

In recent decades we have seen a shift. Successive governments have under-invested in maintaining safe, secure, affordable housing for low-income earners. Many public housing tenants suffer long-standing issues around maintenance and safety.

Public housing is now only available to those with the greatest need. And even then, it’s in extremely short supply.

There are now more than 60,000 families on the waiting list for public housing in NSW, with many waiting for more than 10 years for a home.

Without adequate housing, people are excluded from many areas of our society. They are deprived of the basic services and supports that are essential to their wellbeing. The Greens are committed to recognising that every person has the right to access affordable, safe, secure, healthy and community-oriented housing.

In NSW, the Liberal-National government is selling off and redeveloping public housing. They intend to shift the management of thousands of public housing properties — about a third of all public housing in NSW — to the control of the community housing sector.

Community housing providers have traditionally been not-for-profit organisations that provide important support services for tenants and play an essential role in the provision of affordable housing in NSW.

The big concern about the recent changes is the potential risk it opens up for big corporations to enter into the "business" of supply and management of public housing.

As a way of honouring the work of the late Ross Smith, a staunch public housing advocate, I took up the concerns he raised about the British corporation Serco, which had “made overtures” to the NSW Government in regards to the management of public and community housing, by asking a question of the Treasurer about this.

Shamefully the Government has failed to rule it out.

Serco became infamous in Australia through its operation of detention centres. The company has been criticised by the Australian Human Rights Commission and been the subject of numerous complaints by detainees in those centres. Serco has also run a number of Australian prisons.

In the UK, Serco has held contracts to deliver housing services, including settlement services for asylum seekers, as well as prisons. Many of those operations have been the subject of scandal.

Despite Serco’s international reputation, the NSW Government has made it clear that the door is wide open for Serco to step in to the public housing sector in NSW.

Allowing companies like Serco to make a profit from providing public or community housing won’t lead to better outcomes for public housing tenants. It will move funding out of the public housing system, into the pockets of shareholders.

Public housing should be about people, not profits.

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Jenny Leong MP is the State Member for Newtown and the NSW Greens spokesperson on Housing

Tuesday, February 7, 2017