Tenants in 150 homes in Waterloo South’s first stage have been given six months’ notice to relocate for the redevelopment. The area covers two street blocks bounded by John, Cope, McEvoy and Mead streets on the southern edge of the estate.
Others within Waterloo South will know when they might relocate within the next two years. Those in the high-rise have been told they will not need to move for at least 10 years. All tenants were advised before material was made public online.
Each tenant was delivered a notice, by hand if they were home, and assigned a relocations officer. Tenants can ask to be relocated into housing in the local area or elsewhere in the state. Seventy social housing homes above Waterloo Metro will become available within six months.
A 2023 Waterloo Estate tenant survey showed 43 per cent would move out of the neighbourhood if given the chance while 35 per cent disagreed. The figures may be a bit different for Waterloo South as 22 per cent of the tenants are Aboriginal and may be more inclined to stay in the area.
At January 2025, 719 (of the 749) properties in Waterloo South were tenanted with 1,013 residents. Of these 75 per cent were single persons, 60 per cent were aged households with tenants aged 55+ (or 45+ for Aboriginal tenants) and 22 per cent have lived in their homes for over 20 years.
Homes NSW is funding Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) to provide an Independent Tenant Advocate for relocations. RLC, Kinchela Boys Home and Counterpoint receive some Council funding for independent support.
No extra social work/case management support is being supplied. Work on improving the current human service system has stalled and Homes NSW’s People and Place Plan dealing with additional needs from the relocations and redevelopment has not responded to community criticism.
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Geoff Turnbull is the Spokesperson for REDWatch.
A Homes NSW employee told me the towers of Waterloo North and Central would be suitable for relocations. Unless one really likes moving house often, that is a bad idea, since it would mean moving now knowing you will have to move again, albeit in ten years, if the government can be trusted, and given it said it would block the privatisation, it cannot. Tenants should be made clearly aware of their right to have an advocate present at the Relocation Interview, which will determine how many rooms, what sort of place, etc, they are offered, and which organisations are funded to provide these advocates.