Elderly residents in Millers Point have been reluctant to use non-profit transport services since the government’s announcement that public housing properties in the area will be sold.
The manager of South East Sydney Community Transport, Jane Rogers, said ridership has fallen by half in Millers Point in the last month because elderly residents are extremely worried about being relocated from their homes.
“This has been extremely distressing for the 29 elderly people we serve in Millers Point,” she said. “The government hoped to treat this like an old band-aid, pull it off fast and it might hurt but at least it will be quick. This feels more like an amputation without anaesthetic.”
On March 19, Minister for Family and Community Services, Pru Goward, announced the government’s plans to sell some 293 high-value public housing properties in Millers Point.
One of Jane Rogers’ clients, Debbie, has lived in Millers Point off and on since she was 17. Her father ran the local butcher shop for 30 years. She has lived in a house in Millers point for 18 years with her son. Her father, who also lives in public housing in Millers Point, requires full-time care from Debbie following a recent fight with cancer. Living so close to her father makes taking care of him possible and she is afraid of what may happen to him now.
“I’m fighting because I want to stay,” said Debbie. “The community here is very strong and I feel safe here but I’m still willing to move if there is a decent home.”
But, Debbie’s relocation officer has told her there are no options that currently fit her needs and she will have to wait.
Patricia Corowa moved into a house in Millers Point in 2012 after 26 years on the Housing NSW waiting list. She had been homeless and lived in condemned buildings and tiny private apartments. When she finally saw her home in Millers Point she thought she would spend the rest of her life there. But at 10am on March 19 a letter with the heading “Moving to A New Home” was delivered to her door. Since then she says she has been left frustrated and disheartened by a string of no-show appointments with her relocation officer and increasingly impersonal letters from Housing NSW.
The 500 residents of Millers Point are being moved to the top of the waiting list for public housing, but this means that the 57,000 people already on the list will need to wait longer. There are currently no proposals for how the money from the sale of the Millers Point properties will be used to provide new housing stock.
The government is now facing a great deal of criticism over its handling of the community at Millers Point regarding this decision.
