Millers Point: through the looking glass

  Thanks to Jane Bennett for allowing us to reproduce her painting, 67 Lower Fort St - This is my home.

   Thanks also to Sally Parslow for her consent.

Let’s reflect on the forced relocation of public housing tenants from Millers Point. Here, the looking glass is The Brown Couch and Clearing House, blogs of the Tenants’ Union of NSW. A selection of posts allows us to see beyond the surface of the mirror.

The announcement

19 March 2014: The O'Farrell Government announces the proposed sale of 293 public housing properties in Millers Point and the Rocks. The Tenants' Union of NSW condemns this sell-off of public housing. Here’s its media release following the announcement of the sale. Here's the residents' response.

24 March 2014: Fact Check: The truth about 'subsidies' at Millers Point and The Rocks. 

31 March 2014: Fact Check: The truth about 'generations' of tenants at Millers Point and The Rocks.

25 June 2014: Millers Point and The Rocks: heritage under threat. 

4 August 2014: Millers Point and the United Nations. Our colleague, Kim Boettcher, solicitor for The Aged-care Rights Service (now called Seniors Rights Service), addresses the United Nations' Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing and draws attention to the plight of tenants of social housing at Millers Point and The Rocks, and of other older persons.
 

Updates 

7 October 2015: Eighteen months after the announcement of the sale, we take a sobering look at the impact on this unique inner-suburban community and its resident tenants. Our article is entitled: ‘You shall not covet your neighbour's house.’ Check our blog here. 

19 November 2015: A new Minister for Social Housing provides a ray of hope ... Ninety public housing tenants remaining in Millers Point received letters in November 2015, with an offer to stay in the historic suburb by swapping their current homes for other non-heritage apartments. Check our blog here. 

2 August 2016: We're saddened by the weekend's news that Sydney's iconic Sirius Building will not be listed on the NSW Heritage Register, despite the unanimous recommendation of the Heritage Council of NSW. Check our blog here.

The impact on the residents

8 September 2016: ‘Brutal’... This is how the residents describe the actions of Housing NSW in Millers Point. Their experiences are documented by Professor Alan Morris of the University of Technology Sydney. He allows the residents to tell the story of their displacement in their own words.

This paper concludes:

What is evident is that the actual and intended removal of public housing residents from Millers Point unleashed a great deal of hardship and distress. ... In sum, the way the New South Wales government has gone about the move was viewed by most interviewees as brutal. ... The announcement that all residents were to be moved was catastrophic for some residents and precipitated extreme anxiety and depression.

Check our blog here.

2 February 2017: Millers Point ... time to reflect. We say:

[The new Premier should revisit] ... the sale of all social housing stock in Millers Point. It is not too late to retain some of Millers Point and the Sirius Building for social housing, so that Millers Point remains a mixed community and not a ghetto for the wealthy.

Check our blog here.

16 March 2017: We reflect on the third anniversary of the announcement to sell all public housing properties in Millers Point. We also reflect on a report of the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. At Paragraph 6, it reads:

In many countries in the global South ... the impact of financialization is experienced differently, but with a common theme — the subversion of housing and land as social goods in favour of their value as commodities for the accumulation of wealth, resulting in widespread evictions and displacement.

Sounds like Millers Point, Sydney, Australia ... even though we're a so-called first world country.

26 May 2017 and 6 June 2017: Professor Alan Morris of the University of Technology Sydney writes again about the experiences of the residents forced to relocate. We have called our blogs “It was like leaving your family’ and 'It was like leaving my family: Postscript'.

In the first of these blogs, we reveal that Professor Morris uncovers an early media release from then NSW Finance Minister who announced that the government was considering selling off much of the public housing in Millers Point, because 'the government needs to consider it in the context of all of the surrounding areas, including the Barangaroo redevelopment area.' [my emphasis]. Previously we wrote: 'Ponder ... the real agenda at Millers Point is to free up housing stock around Barangaroo for gentrification and to create a Paris Quarter ... a touch of Montmartre.' 

27 July 2017: Our pleas to hit the pause button came to nought. We ask: 'Will the NSW Government show compassion and allow older residents of Millers Point to age-in-place in their homes? Yes, stop the evictions. Yes, seize the opportunity which the Land and Environment Court has provided and talk again about the importance of retaining social housing in Millers Point.' We say: 'You have received oodles of cash from the sales to date and you also announced a billion dollar windfall in revenue from stamp duty in this year's State Budget.' Check our blog here.

The last days

20 March 2018: Minister for Family and Community Services, Pru Goward, asserts:

Hundreds of people on the social housing waiting list and hundreds more will have access to brand new homes as the NSW Government continues to deliver on its promise to build more housing through the sale of properties in Millers Point.

Fact Check: Check our analysis of the Minister's statement here.

15 June 2018: The Supreme Court gives the sole surviving tenant of Millers Point 28 days to vacate, after 42 years in her home and the Government stands to exceed its expected takings by $200 million. Millers Point changes forever. New social housing dwellings are being built using these monies, but in nearly all cases, they are not close-by. None of the Government's bonanza from stamp duty income has been channelled into expanding the provision of social and affordable housing. Check our blog here.

21 June 2018: There is only token acknowledgement of ‘ageing-in-place’ in Government policies. The redevelopment of old public housing estates poses real hardships for many older tenants where only lip service has been given to this principle. Check our blog here. 

9 November 2018: With the sale of the final two terrace houses, Property NSW announces the end of the Millers Point sales program ... [but for] the sale of the Sirius building. So who are the new residents? We have glimpses: it's turned from struggle street to billionaire's row. And, of course, 'Kent Street' now is known by some as 'Rent Street', because of its many Airbnb listings. Check our blog here. 

Sirius building

The sale of the Sirius building proceeds ... here’s the latest media articles. In late January 2019, Jacob Saulwick and Sarah Keogham write in The Sydney Morning Herald: ‘Don't sell Sirius to the Opal tower developer, local politicians urge Premier.’ Read their article here. They follow this up with a second article: ‘Opal developer pulls out of the running for Sirius sale.’ Read their second article here.  

Further blogs

There are 30 posts on The Brown Couch  that make reference to Millers Point. Above is just a selection. For all posts, check here. When you reach the end of each section, click 'Next Posts'.

In addition to the above, there are 22 posts on Clearing House that make reference to Millers Point. For all posts, check here. When you reach the end of each section, click 'Older Posts'.

Books and film

Books:

Alan Morris, Gentrification and Displacement: The Forced Relocation of Public Housing Tenants in Inner-Sydney, Springer, 2018. Check here.

John Dunn, Ben Peake, Amiera Piscopo, Save Our Sirius: The Book, Piper Press, 2018. Check here.

The film:

Check out venues and times here. 

Lessons to learn

In June 2017 as well as the evictions out of Millers Point, Sydney was witnessing: the ongoing redevelopment of Airds-Bradbury; mass forced transfers out of the Ivanhoe estate for redevelopment;
and the planning for Waterloo ramping up following a year or more of uncertainty since the original announcement.

Into this context Shelter NSW, Tenants' Union of NSW and City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW published a report entitled 'A Compact for Renewal: What tenants want from Renewal'.

On page 3 of the report it reads:

The next stage in the project following this is to present these findings to renewal agencies in NSW, including Government and community sector agencies and seek their feedback on the extent to which those agencies believe they can deliver what tenants want. Subject to the willingness of agencies to engage with the project, we seek to negotiate a set of ground rules by which agencies agree to manage renewal projects in social housing areas. In this negotiation, the project partners emphasise their willingness to understand what’s important for the agencies about the renewal process and to work through the list of what tenants want from renewal to identify a set of ground rules both parties are comfortable with.

Consultations continue. It is understood that there will be a meeting with Family and Community in late February 2019 to work through the details of the draft principles for engagement document. To date the parties haven’t been able to agree on a final document. The authors of the above report and its steering group are committed to ensuring the document remains authentic and does not dilute or compromise the voices and concerns expressed by the approximately 100 public housing tenants who participated in the consultation process and which informed the principles document. It is hoped that the document will be finalised soon and will be signed by all parties for implementation across agreed sites. This becomes especially crucial with the release of the Masterplan for Waterloo.

The above blog was prepared for the screening of the film The Eviction and panel discussion at University of NSW Law School on Friday, 1 February 2019.

Painting: 67 Lower Fort St - This is my home (2014 oil on canvas 46 x 61cm)

Painted by Jane Bennett. Email janecooperbennett@gmail.com 

Blog: Industrial Revelation http://janebennettartist.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

Postscript:

On 28 June 2019 The Guardian reported: ‘Sydney's Sirius building to be refurbished after being sold for $150m.’ Check it out at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/28/sydneys-sirius-building-to-be-refurbished-after-being-sold-for-150m

Here's a summary of the sales data:

190 sales totalling $759,576,667

Price range for individual sales $1,438,000 to $150m

Median sale price $2.5m

McGrath Real Estate sold properties totalling $518,854,667

Stamp duty for sales $43.37M

Millers Point Update December 2016

Rev Fred Nile and local MP Alex Greenwich join Millers Point residents at their Christmas Party

This is an update on the previous blog.

On 31 October 2016 Shelter NSW and the Tenants' Union of NSW held a forum on 'Large-scale relocations of tenants in public housing - learning from tenants' experience'. You may check out the two main presentations on the Shelter NSW website. Professor Alan Morris spoke to his brief, entitled ‘A Contemporary Forced Urban Removal: The Displacement of Public Housing Residents from Millers Point, Dawes Point and the Sirius Building by the New South Wales Government’ and Paul Vevers from the NSW Government’s Family and Community Services replied to his report. You can read both presentations here.

On 26 November 2016 Millers Point residents and friends enjoyed a concert called ‘Sing for Joy’ with two choirs. The concert also saw the launch of a crowdfunding campaign for the film called ‘Forced out’.

Keep up-to-date on the campaign to save the Sirius building here. You can read about the pending court case here.

Update on the statistics...

You will find the breakdown of properties, tenancies and number of resident at the start of the sale process in SGS Economics & Planning, 'Millers Point and The Rocks: An alternative way forward', Final report, August 2014, Table 1 (Social housing breakdown), p 4. At the outset there were 293 properties, 543 tenancies, 410 occupied tenancies and 590 tenants and household members. Along the way, Darling House, an aged care facility, also was sold.

Sales
At 1 December 2016 133 properties have been sold for $348.56M with a median sale price of $2.39M and sales in the range $1.54M and $12.30M. (The top price was for a block of 12 one-bedroom apartments covering 7 properties sold in one line.) Based upon sales to date, an updated estimate of funds to be received from these sales is $677.21M.

The stamp duty owed to the NSW Government from existing sales is a further $18.13M or just under 5% of total revenue from sales and stamp duty combined.

There are still 161 properties to be sold, including 79 in the Sirius building. (This figure includes 28 units in a fewer number of properties where sales were ‘deferred’ and the remaining residents at this time given an option of applying for tenancies in these units.)

Here’s the NSW Government Property’s latest media release on Millers Point.

Residents
At the meeting of Millers Point Estates Advisory Board on 16 November 2016 Family & Community Services Housing NSW reported:

• 399 tenancies in the portfolio.

• 358 have been vacated.

• Of the 41 remaining tenancies (numbering 59 tenant and household members) to be relocated:
• 11 (numbering 17 tenant and household members) are from FACS Housing NSW and involve 5 residents approved for moving into alternative accommodation within Millers Point and 6 approved for moving outside of Millers Point.
• 28 (numbering 39 tenant and household members) are from FACS Housing NSW and remain unallocated
• 2 (numbering 3 tenant and household members) are from Little Real Estate and remain unallocated 

• 7 of the 41 remaining tenancies (covering11 tenant and household members) are in the Sirius Building and of these: 
• 2 involve residents approved for moving into alternative accommodation, with 1 within Millers Point and 1 outside of Millers Point.
• 5 remain unallocated.

• 28 properties in Millers Point were set aside for remaining tenants and household members. Of these, 15 remain unoccupied. 

Altogether 520 tenant and household members have vacated, with a further 17 committed to moving and 42 still uncommitted to moving.

Postscript ...
The principal real estate agency which has been helping the NSW Government empty Millers Point of its social housing tenants is McGrath Real Estate. You may recall that two years ago McGrath’s then chief executive, John McGrath, named Millers Point as his 'top pick' in the company's annual report. And, between August 2014 and December 2016 McGrath Real Estate sold 103 properties in Millers Point for in excess of $302 million. They are selling many more ... doing their bit to turn Millers Point into an enclave for the wealthy in a more and more divided city.

So it is interesting to hear what McGrath's chairperson, Cass O'Connor, told investors at their recent Annual Meeting: ‘When our society's teachers, nurses, police and emergency services personnel cannot afford to live in the communities they serve, housing affordability can very quickly become a factor in social and economic dislocation.’

Millers Point Update October 2016

There has been considerable recent media coverage of the forced relocation of residents of Millers Point. Elsewhere we reported on Professor Alan Morris's Shelter Brief entitled 'A contemporary forced urban removal: The displacement of public housing residents from Millers Point, Dawes Point and the Sirius Building by the New South Wales Government'.

Ann Arnold of ABC's Radio National provides excellent coverage of 'the battle over Sydney's heart' in Millers Point. Her 'Background Briefing' segment runs for 40 minutes and you can hear it here.  It first was broadcast on Background Briefing at 8am on Sunday, 9 October. The transcript is now up. Click on ‘Show transcript’ here.  An article about this story is found here.

Ann Arnold and Tiger Webb, also of ABC's Radio National, write about the last days at Millers Point of Florence, Cherie and Barney, some of the few residents left.  Read their stories here.

And, the rally to save the Sirius Building, on which there is now a Green Ban, attracted over a thousand protesters. View this story here.

An update on the statistics of Millers Point ...

You will find the breakdown of properties, tenancies and number of resident at the start of the sale process in SGS Economics & Planning, 'Millers Point and The Rocks: An alternative way forward', Final report, August 2014, Table 1 (Social housing breakdown), p 4. At the outset there were 293 properties, 543 tenancies, 410 occupied tenancies and 590 tenants and household members.  Along the way, Darling House, an aged care facility, also was sold.

Sales  

At 27 October 2016, 105 properties have been sold for $288.09M with a median sale price of $2.46M and sales in the range $1.54M and $7.70M. Based upon sales to date, a revised and updated estimate of funds to be received from these sales is $689.89M.

The stamp duty owed to the NSW Government from existing sales is a further $14.86M or just under 5% of total revenue from sales and stamp duty combined.

There are still 189 properties to be sold, including 79 in the Sirius building. (This figure includes 28 units in a fewer number of properties where sales were ‘deferred’ and the remaining residents at this time given an option of applying for tenancies in these units.)  A further 28 properties are currently list for sale: 13 through Expression of Interest that closed on 1 November 2016, a block of 7 properties to be sold in one line at auction on 30 November 2016 and 8 (2 lots of 2 to be sold as single properties) at auction on 30 November 2016. All proposed sales are displayed here.

Residents

At the meeting of Millers Point Estates Advisory Board on 10 October 2016 Housing NSW reported:

•    399 tenancies in the portfolio.
•    353 have been vacated.
•    Of the 46 remaining tenancies to be relocated, 42 (numbering 59 tenant and household members) are from FACS Housing NSW and 4 (numbering 5 people) are from Little Real Estate.
•    16 of the 46 remaining tenancies (including 2 from the Sirius Building) involve residents approved for moving into alternative accommodation (6 staying within Millers Point and 10 outside Millers Point).
•    30 tenancies (numbering  42 people) are still to be rehoused.
•    15 properties set aside for remaining people remain unallocated, although one of these involves a possible allocation.
Of the remaining 30 tenancies, 5 are in the Sirius Building.

The above information tells us that at 10 October 2016, 42 residents are still to be rehoused, and since March 2014 a total of 548 (590 less 42) - or thereabouts - residents have been moved.

(Note there are differences in our sources. Firstly, there is a difference of 14 in the number of properties marked for sale: SGS's table reports 293 properties to be sold, whereas we refer to 279 properties sold or to be sold. Secondly, there is a difference of 11 in the number of 'occupied tenancies' in  SGS's table  and the number of 'tenancies in the portfolio' reported on by Housing NSW at the Millers Point Estates Advisory Board. The figures here are 410 and 399 respectively.)


Revised and updated on 6 November 2016