Tenants and housing advocates are set to push for better protection for renters in the lead-up to the state election, with a rally to call for a ban on no-grounds evictions.
More than 2100 community leaders and members are expected to attend, along with leading experts in housing, planning and energy. They want an end to no-grounds evictions, 5000 social houses built each year, mandated minimum efficiency standards for these homes and an end to homelessness by 2030.
This list will be given to the incoming state government after the March election. State and federal leaders and members of the opposition parties have been invited to outline their plan for housing and energy affordability ahead of the upcoming NSW and federal polls, but none have replied as yet.
The event is spearheaded by Sydney Alliance, which includes the NSW Tenants’ Union, Everybody’s Home campaign and St Vincent de Paul.
NSW Tenants’ Union senior policy officer Leo Patterson Ross is confident there will be major commitments made on the night.
“This is one of the biggest gatherings … these are really important issues and they’re growing. Whoever forms government, they have to acknowledge this,” Mr Patterson Ross said.
“They’ve been able to not address this for a long time but we don’t think they can ignore this any more.
“There is a growing number of people affected by these issues … more and more people are being left behind on energy costs and [they are] realising that government can be taking a greater role.”
Mr Patterson Ross has welcomed NSW Labor’s announcement of a renewable energy power company to power three million homes.
He said while solar grants were accessible to property owners, the state government also needed to focus on reducing energy costs for renters too.
“It’s inconsistent with the purpose of social housing [if] the rent is a bit lower but bills are still very high,” he said.
The Everybody’s Home campaign has united more than a dozen not-for-profit housing organisations to lobby for consistent protection for renters across the board.
The campaign says the NSW housing crisis is the worst in Australia. One-third of voters rent and almost 300,000 households are in rental stress, struggling to pay for basics like food and power bills.
Campaign NSW spokeswoman Katherine McKernan said not enough resources were being dedicated to solving the state’s crisis.
“You need more affordable private rentals, more social housing and you need affordable houses. We’ve got elements of that but no overall plan just yet,” Ms McKernan said. “[The state government] have made an effort to acknowledge that homelessness is an issue in NSW, but unfortunately it’s nowhere near the investment required.
“All three governments need to use their resources and plan their investments so we have a system that addresses the problem across the board. There’s two elections in a short space of time. There’s a real opportunity to influence the debate and get some commitments.”
