Housing activists took to the streets in Glebe to show opposition to New South Wales Labor鈥檚 demolition plans for public housing sites.
The windows at the 30-year old public housing units at 82 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe, have boarded up and the site fenced off in preparation.
Activists told the rally, organised by Action for Public Housing (A4PH) and Hands Off Glebe, that public housing should not be demolished and especially during a housing crisis.
The 82 Wentworth Park Road site was occupied in June 2023 pressuring NSW housing minister Rose Jackson to promise it would remain 鈥100% owned and managed public housing鈥.
As Rachel Evans, from A4PH told the protest, Jackson lied. 鈥淪he promised no privatisations [and] no-sell offs, and now the site is about to be demolished.鈥
The new development will reportedly include 43聽community housing apartments, which, while cheaper than market-rate housing, is run by charities and non-government organisations.
鈥淭his is privatisation by stealth of public land, which will benefit developers,鈥 Evans said. The waiting list for public housing has grown from 56,000 in June 2024 to 67,000 now.
Linda Casey Kennedy read out a聽letter from a former tenant, Carolyn Ienna. 鈥淲hen I moved in, the government told me it would be for life 鈥 and then they moved me out two years ago.鈥
Ienna said when she heard she was to be evicted she tried to contact Jackson, but was ignored. She said there were 鈥渢hree deaths related to relocation notices鈥. 鈥淗uman beings need a roof over their heads, not stuck living in a park, suffering.鈥
Dennis Doherty, from Hands Off Glebe, said the group does not oppose new housing but 鈥渋t must be public housing鈥.
鈥淲e are not a NIMBY [not in my backyard] group,鈥 he said, explaining that Hands Off Glebe had commissioned an architect to draw up an alternative plan which would have refurbished the site and boosted the number of public housing units. Labor, however, rejected it.
Karyn Brown, a long-term public housing campaigner in Waterloo, where she lives, condemned Labor for its push to replace public housing with private and community housing.
Brown pointed out that dozens of homeless people sheltered under the tram bridge in Wentworth Park, across the road from the boarded up estate. 鈥淭hat place has been sitting empty for 18 months; those people could鈥檝e been living there.鈥
Other speakers included Aron Khuc, University of Sydney (USyd) student welfare officer; Jim McIlroy from Socialist Alliance; Judy Deacon, mother of Jesse Deacon, who was killed by police at the Franklyn Street public housing estate in 2023; and USyd disability officer Remy Lebreton, who read a message from Greens MPs Jenny Leong and Kobi Shetty.
鈥淔or years we鈥檝e seen the sell-off, destruction and underinvestment in critical public housing,鈥 Shetty and Leong鈥檚 message said. 鈥淭here was a deliberate strategy of demolition by neglect, so [the government] could justify selling off public housing properties and claim they were too expensive to fix.鈥
The crowd marched to Glebe Markets where Evans, and housing activist Isaac Nellist, encouraged shoppers to support the defend public housing campaign. 鈥淧ublic housing is the best solution to the housing crisis and skyrocketing rents,鈥 said Nellist, a renter and Socialist Alliance member.
The group then marched through the streets to the Wentworth Park Road site where they discussed plans to save public housing estates at Cowper Street and Franklyn Street in Glebe.聽
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