The State Government has sold a whopping $130 million worth of social housing in the Campbelltown Local Government Area in the past two financial years.
Campbelltown Labor MP Greg Warren says the NSW Opposition obtained documents under freedom of information laws which highlighted the rampant sell off of social housing throughout NSW, totalling a staggering $650 million.
At the same time, the social housing waiting list ballooned out to more than 60,000 applicants, says Mr Warren.
“This government has sold off $130 million worth of social housing in Campbelltown while thousands of people are struggling to put a roof over their heads,’’ the local MP said.
“This is a government that is more interested in selling off social housing to property developers and investors rather than increasing the supply of social and affordable housing.
“With a ballooning social housing waiting list of more than 60,000 applicants, it is clear that this State Government has got its priorities all wrong,” Mr Warren said.
The documents obtained by the opposition show that in the 2014-15 financial year, the gross value of social housing asset sales in Campbelltown totalled $49.8 million.
This figure exploded to an astonishing $80 million – an increase of 62 per cent – for the 2015-16 year.
More than $25 million of the blowout occurred in the suburb of Minto alone.
Mr Warren says all this comes at the same time that community housing experts are warning that NSW needs 100,000 additional social and affordable houses over the next 20 years to keep up with current levels of demand.
In the midst of the current housing affordability crisis, the State Government should be focusing on increasing the supply of social and affordable housing options rather than selling off existing stock, Mr Warren said.
The Labor party initiated the sell-off of all Minto housing commission land. They re-badged it as the “One Minto” redevelopment. This was their way to sell government housing properties to a developer (Landcom – now known as Urban Growth, who is following the exact same methods and plans in the Airds and Claymore redevelopments), who then gets to sell off tons of topsoil, woodchips from pulped trees, build tiny homes on tiny blocks, and sell them for a massive price (considering the size and the post code) to willing immigrants, and other first-home-buyers. Isn’t it slightly hypocritical for Labor to jump up and down and tell the Liberal party they should build more “affordable housing options”?