One hundred and fifty public housing residents in the Waterloo South estate were given eviction notices, via a February 27 letter, from Homes NSW.
They were told their homes were in 鈥淪tage 1鈥 of the redevelopment plan and given six months before 鈥渞elocation鈥 鈥 eviction. It said that as 鈥渕oving can be stressful鈥, a relocation officer would be made available to 鈥渉elp鈥.
鈥淓victing people from their communities and homes in a housing crisis unprecedented in modern times, is an appalling act of cruelty,鈥 said Karyn Brown, a resident and public housing campaigner, on February 28.
Brown is a resident of Waterloo South public housing estate. She is also the spokesperson for Action for Public Housing.
鈥淲aterloo South is our home. We don鈥檛 want our community destroyed by governments hell bent on privatising housing and land.
鈥淥ur communities are not for sale. The last thing Labor should be doing is evicting us, putting us in another home someone else could be living in, and then demolishing perfectly livable homes when we need to save and salvage finite resources.鈥
Burcak Gurun, spokesperson for Community Dignity Respect, which organises free BBQs for the Waterloo residents in for almost five years, added: 鈥淭hey need peace and quiet, not evictions and demolition of their homes.鈥 He said Labor 鈥渨ants to destroy this community鈥 amid a cost-of-living and housing crisis.
Brown said Labor鈥檚 go-ahead showed it really only cares about developers and privatising public land, not about solving the housing crisis.
鈥淭here are 63,000 people on the waiting list for public housing in NSW. You demolish public housing and it takes 10 years to build something else. We have a material and construction labor shortage. This is complete madness.鈥
Brown said she and her neighbours will resist the demolition 鈥渢ooth and nail鈥.
[A has been called at Waterloo Neighbourhood Centre on March 1, 12noon.]