Unfortunately for those community members, who have been lobbying for a combined Human Services Group that would fill the gap left by the ending of the Redfern-Waterloo Authority (RWA) Human Services Group, there was no new information as to what the new group, which has met four times already, has been doing.
Instead of a report on the group’s work in Redfern-Waterloo, the meeting was given presentations on what the different services do across the city and state. However, a few pieces of information were given by the police which highlighted that the focus of the group will be on drug-related issues such as drug use, drug dealing and drug health.
The issues of mental health, where it related to drug use, will be considered, as will the placement of recently released prisoners with drug-related histories into Redfern and Waterloo public housing properties. However, other human services such as disability and aged care are not included.
One of the other points the police addressed was the issue of community involvement in the group, which had been highly contested since the group was formed. The decision has now been taken to allow some community input by allowing six to eight hand-picked community members to attend bi-monthly meetings. The group meets monthly and allowing some participation in the second round of meetings will at least give some members of the community a chance to report any problems they know of within the community.
It is not known at this stage whether the chosen community members will be sworn to confidentiality as was the case with the RWA.
One concern raised by members of the community was the concentration on public housing rather than considering the same problems that exist in the private market and looking at the community as a whole. A number of attendees felt that such a concentration would only add to the demonisation of public housing tenants in the area.
This is an important point as there is so much work being done to highlight the positive elements of the area, from the Volunteer Awards to plans to create a new Redfern Festival and beautify Redfern station. For many members of the community it is important to pursue and promote the positives of Redfern and Waterloo rather than continuing with negative connotations.
Another issue that emerged is the ongoing merger of services such as the merger proposed for the Redfern Local Area Command with Surry Hills and merges within the Corrective Services. One has to wonder how relevant the Integrated Human Services Group will be once these mergers have taken place. Similarly, the loss of a government minister for housing and the split of the department between two different departments (assets to the Department of Finance and Infrastructure, and tenants services to the Department of Human Services) add to the problems facing the Human Services Group and tenants in general.
No one denies that there are drug-related problems in the area but it is important to realise that these problems are caused by a very small minority of public housing tenants, and that they are not solely related to public housing properties. There are just as many problems in the private market as there are in public housing but these never get the publicity or attention that is given to the public housing estates.
Finally, the question was raised as to how the community-driven Community Drug Action Team, which also deals with drug- and alcohol-related issues, can relate to the new body and how what was a community-driven request for a wide-ranging Human Services body can lead to true community participation and engagement rather than being excluded and made peripheral to this important project.
