The New South Wales (NSW) Labor government last month handed out eviction notices to 147 residents of the Waterloo South housing estate in inner-city Sydney. These are the first of around 3,000 residents set to be turfed out of the long-established public housing precinct, to make way for lucrative privately owned construction.

The entire Waterloo housing estate has been slated for redevelopment for many decades. Ahead of the March 2023 state election, Labor, then in opposition, vowed to end the privatisation of public housing in NSW. Less than five months later, the new Labor government announced that the destruction of the Waterloo estate would proceed.

The formerly working-class suburbs of Waterloo and neighbouring Redfern, which also served for decades as meeting centres for Aboriginal people coming to the city, have undergone a process of gentrification and much of the indigenous population has been driven out.

Waterloo South is estimated by real estate agents to “have a gross development value of $2 billion or more,” according to the Australian Financial Review. It makes up 12 hectares of the 19-hectare Waterloo Housing Estate, located only 4 kilometres from the central business district of Sydney, a city ranked among the most expensive in the world.

The median price for an apartment in Redfern is now over $1 million, and in Waterloo, more than $900,000. Houses sell for more than $1.8 million in both suburbs. Median rent for an apartment in Waterloo has risen more than 36 percent over the past five years, to $950 per week.

This is the economic reality behind the Labor government’s phoney promise that Waterloo South residents will be “relocated to another home in the local area or another area of choice.”

Housing Minister Rose Jackson noted that 70 new social housing units above Waterloo Station are slated for completion “this year,” less than half what is needed to house the first batch of evictees, even assuming it is finished in time.

Moreover, NSW currently has 64,280 households on the wait list for social housing, with a median waiting time of 16 months. This is part of a national affordable housing shortfall of more than 600,000 dwellings.

The area’s high land value also points to the real motivation behind the Labor government’s claim that the redevelopment is necessary to “deliver new homes, community places, and green spaces which prioritise the health and wellbeing of social housing tenants.”

Waterloo South currently has almost 90 percent “social housing.” Under Labor’s plan to demolish and redevelop the estate, this will be reduced to just 30 percent. Twenty percent is to be allocated to so-called “affordable housing,” while the remaining 50 percent would be on the open market. The exact plans for Waterloo Central and North are still to be confirmed. The entire project is expected to take up to 30 years to complete.

The terms “social” and “affordable” housing are used to cover up the destruction and privatisation of public housing, that is, government-owned homes to accommodate people on low incomes. “Social housing” is an umbrella term including public housing, community housing and Aboriginal housing.

Community housing, which constitutes the majority of “social housing,” is owned or operated by non-government organisations, which can pick and choose their tenants, meaning higher rents and less security for residents.

The price of “affordable housing,” meanwhile, is pegged to the inflated housing market. In NSW, the threshold is 20 percent less than the market rate, meaning an “affordable” apartment in Waterloo could cost upwards of $760 per week. This is almost 60 percent of the median wage.

Independent architect proposals for refurbishing the Waterloo South dwellings have been ignored by the Labor government, which is intent on handing public housing assets to private industry. One such report, cited in the Conversation, refutes government claims that the estate is not fit for purpose:

“All dwellings have large windows to provide excellent daylight and fresh air to all dwellings; rooms are never too deep; there is generous open space between and around the buildings with abundant deep soil area allowing for planting of large trees.… the idea that they are definitively inappropriate for contemporary needs, and therefore, obsolete is simply not supported by evidence.”

Malcolm is one of the 147 residents given an eviction notice. He told World Socialist Web Site reporters he has lived in his current dwelling for 16 years. He said:

We got a letter giving us 6 months notice. I’ve just got to wait until they get back to me. I want a backyard and a garage so I can work on my bike. As long as they keep me close to the city, I’ll be happy.

I’m on the disability pension. I’m paying $120 a week rent and I have to pay for electricity and water rates on top of that.

I’m hoping that the government will do the right thing because we are the first lot to go so if they treat us right, all the rest of the residents will think they are going to get something good, too. Otherwise hell will break loose. I don’t know what they’ll do.

Everyone around here is coming to ask me what’s going on because I’m the first one to move. They want to know what’s happening to me. I’ve been happy to live here. I come from Melbourne. I’ve heard about the Victorian government plan to knock down all the high-rises. They’ll be mad if they do that because where will all those people go?

Dianne, a 72-year-old resident of Waterloo South, said:

I moved here in 1977 and have lived here ever since. I’ve worked, I’ve paid market rent here. I’ve done a lot of work to improve my place and I just want something that is nice and comfortable and what I’m used to.

I received a letter the other day to say that residents of this section of Waterloo will be evicted in 12 months to two years. Two of my neighbours have been told they will have to move in six months. I hope the government will look after us.

I lost my husband two years ago. As long as I get somewhere close and around here, because my doctors are all around this area and I’ve had cancer. I’m in remission now, but I still have to go to the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse [cancer treatment centre in nearby Camperdown] for checkups and everything.

It wouldn’t suit me to be relocated in an outer-Sydney suburb, I wouldn’t go there.

The destruction of Waterloo South is part of a broader process. Over the last half-century, public housing has been gutted across the country. As a proportion of total housing stock, public housing has plummeted from almost 9 percent in 1966 to less than 3 percent now.

Initially built for returned soldiers and blue-collar workers, public housing has been eviscerated through funding cuts and sell-offs by consecutive Labor and Liberal-National federal and state governments.

The Victorian Labor government has begun carrying out a plan to demolish and effectively privatise 44 public housing buildings across Melbourne, which would displace some 10,000 residents. This week, the government revealed that the new development that replaces the Flemington and North Melbourne towers, from which residents are currently being thrown out, will not include a single public housing unit.

At the federal level, it was revealed late last month that the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund has not built a single home since it was a central plank of Labor’s 2022 election platform. The legislation, designed to further enrich the property development sector, was passed with the backing of the Greens.

What is posed before public and social housing residents is the necessity of a political struggle against all the parliamentary parties. To defend their homes and fight for the basic social right to secure, affordable and habitable housing for all, residents need to form rank-and-file neighbourhood committees.

Through these committees, residents can make an appeal to construction workers and others, to halt the demolition of public housing, including through strikes and industrial bans. Such an appeal would be based on the common class interest of public housing tenants and the broader working class, who are all being subjected to an assault on working and living conditions.

The Socialist Equality Party urges all public housing residents and their supporters throughout the working class to contact us and develop the discussion on the urgent next steps required.

Attend our upcoming public forum in Melbourne! Titled “Build a neighbourhood defence committee against public housing towers demolition!” it is being held Sunday, March 16 at 2 p.m. (AEDT), at Kensington Neighbourhood House, 89 McCracken Street, Kensington. Register here.