Socially unaffordable

Cr TONY MULDER
Housing Services approach to new housing might be financial affordable, but is Socially UNaffordable. A rethink of the strategy is needed in light of Council’s rejection of plans to build 14 identical and poorly designed 2 bedroom units on 5 small lots in Clarendonvale.
They are ‘cheap as…. A simple quare with 2 bedrooms and a tiny bathroom on one side and a single area for kitchen, dining and living, and only 1 door separating toilet from lounge.

The community cannot afford the social cost of this type of infill, particularly in areas of existing social disadvantage. it would be better to renovate the many damaged and unoccpied houses first and then disperse new public housing into the many new and proposed private subdivisions.

There are more than 1,000 private residential lots in various stages of release in Clarence Plains, providing a great opportunity to disaggregate public housing and avoid creating new enclaves of social disadvantage in communities that are just emerging from the ‘mistakes of the past’.”

Council planning staff described the proposal as not providing “a good standard of urban design” and “unlikely to assist in alleviating existing social problems within the area”.

How this sort of proposal conforms to Minister Thorpe’s promise to not repeat the mistakes of the past is a mystery, particularly when 50 similar cheap units are proposed for the open space adjacent to the Hart Place shopping centre in Rokeby and the land behind Bland Court is being considered for even more, so called, ‘affordable’ housing.”

There are serious serious private property developers creating good standard residential suburbs on the edge of public housing areas. They are quality developments that increase amenity and ‘liveability’, while the government heads in the opposite direction with cheap concentrated and crowded infill housing.

Also of concern is that under proposed planning legislation, the Minister can ‘call-in’ this type of poorly designed, inappropriate and cheap government projects completing cutting councils out of the process and disenfranchising.

Another issue is the suggestions that this type housing will be built over the road corridor that has been reserved for the northern section of the Rokeby Bypass.