“We need to get the balance right,” Minns said.
But residents said the decision to proceed with the redevelopment was at odds with Minns’ remarks on social media days prior that Labor was “immediately freezing the sale of all public and social housing”.
Tenant Karyn Brown said some local Labor politicians,including Heffron MP Ron Hoenig,told residents during the election campaign to “vote for us,we’ll save your homes”. “I guess we assumed they’d save our homes,” Brown said.
“It seems now[Labor’s] still going to redevelop the estate,but they might put more public housing than the Liberals,and they say we’ll be able to return[after the redevelopment].”
North said she had no idea what the government had planned.
“I don’t think anyone knows. I haven’t had anything told to me for what feels like years.”
Jackson told the residents’ meeting on Monday that the government’s ability to rework the plan for Waterloo South at this stage was constrained because the tender process for a development partner was still underway. She expected that process to be completed in about a month.
“That would then be our opportunity to come in and say ‘OK,well,we didn’t support that plan. How can we turn what that has produced into something that we do support?’,” Jackson said.
“I completely understand people’s frustration about wanting quick decisions,I want that too. But we can’t rush things when there are processes that were initiated[by the previous government].”
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Jackson said all Waterloo South residents would be given access to a safe and secure home within their community or nearby. She said all residents who had to move out would be able to return.
Brown said she felt “no wiser” about the government’s plans after the public meeting.
“The opposite of a solution to a housing crisis is to demolish homes. There’s definitely space for more housing,but there’s no need to destroy what’s already here.”
The Greens housing spokeswoman and Newtown MP Jenny Leong said Waterloo residents had lived with uncertainty about the redevelopment for nearly eight years,and clarity was long overdue.
“In the face of a massive public housing shortage,Waterloo is an opportunity for the NSW Labor government to prove that they can improve on the Coalition’s track record when it comes to delivering and maintaining public housing on public land.”
Jackson said the government’s freeze on the sale of public and social housing had been put in place “to provide the opportunity to assess all government owned assets and identify where we can keep people in their homes and deliver more housing for the people of NSW”.
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