Gentrification and Displacement: The Forced Relocation of Public Housing Tenants in Inner-Sydney

154 Pages·2019·4.512 MB·English

by  Alan Morris

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN SOCIOLOGY
Alan Morris
Gentrification and
Displacement: The
Forced Relocation
of Public Housing
Tenants in Inner-
Sydney
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Alan Morris
fi
Gentri cation
and Displacement: The
Forced Relocation of Public
Housing Tenants
in Inner-Sydney
123
AlanMorris
Institute for Public Policy andGovernance
University of Technology Sydney
Sydney,NSW,Australia
ISSN 2212-6368 ISSN 2212-6376 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs inSociology
ISBN978-981-13-1086-7 ISBN978-981-13-1087-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1087-4
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This book is dedicated to the public housing
tenants of Millers Point and the Sirius
apartment building who were displaced from
their homes and community
Preface
In March 2014, the New South Wales Minister responsible for public housing
announcedthatallofthenearly600publichousingtenantsinMillersPointandthe
Sirius apartmentbuildingininner-Sydney aretoberelocated andtheirhomessold
on the private market. Millers Point is one of the oldest public housing areas in
Australia,andSiriuswaspurposebuiltforpublichousingtenantsandonlyopened
in 1980. A primary aim of the book is to expose and analyse what I argue is the
“administrative evil” (see Dillard and Ruchala 2005) that underpinned this policy
decision. Administrative evil refers to policy-making which is driven primarily by
quantification/financialmetricsandpayslittleornoheedtothehumancostsofthe
policy being implemented. Alternatively, the human costs are downplayed as the
government concerned mounts a media offensive to portray the policy in question
aslegitimate,rationalandjust.Theprimary methodusedfor revealing theimpacts
of thepolicy pursued was in-depth interviews with 48 Millers Point/Sirius tenants.
The interviews allowed the tenants to sketch their histories in Millers Point/Sirius
and portray how they felt about the displacement and its impacts.
Thebook’sfocusisonthecontemporaryperiod—thefewyearsleadinguptothe
March2014displacementannouncementandtheperiodaftertheannouncementup
to April 2018. The introductory chapter sketches the importance of Millers
Point/Siriusforthetenantsconcernedandwhytheblanketdisplacementpolicywas
sotraumatisingformany.Thechapteralsointroducestheconceptofcommunicide,
which I use to refer to the destruction of a place-based community due to gov-
ernmentpolicy.Thephysicalsettingisalsosketchedinthischapter.InChap.2,the
longandrichhistoryofMillersPointandSiriusisoutlinedratherthanreviewedin
detail. Fortunately, the history of Millers Point has been well-documented (see
especially Fitzgerald and Keating 1991). The historical connection of the public
housing tenants to the waterfront and the inter-generational transfer of homes laid
the foundation for an unusually strong place-based community. The third chapter
examines the sense of community that existed in Millers Point/Sirius at the time
of the announcement. A large fraction of the tenants saw Millers Point/Sirius as a
genuine community characterised by strong social ties and place attachment. The
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viii Preface
build-up to the displacement announcement is analysed in Chap. 4. The crucial
factor driving the displacement was gentrification. Besides house prices rocketing
in the decade preceding the announcement, containerisation and the resultant
redevelopmentofthewharvesadjacenttoMillersPointwerekey.Theimpactofthe
displacement announcement on tenants and them being in a state of limbo prior to
actually moving is the focus of Chap. 5. Chapter 6 looks at the bureaucratic pro-
cesses put in place by the government to ensure that the public housing tenants
moved. Besides the bureaucratic pressures, there were a number of other factors,
such as poor maintenance, that pushed tenants to move. The non-bureaucratic
pressures are the focus of Chap. 7. This chapter also examines the impact of a
perceptionbytenantsthatthegovernmentwasabsolutelydeterminedtopushahead
with the displacement and that resistance was futile. The ramifications of moving
outofMillersPoint/SiriusontenantsareexaminedinChap.8.Formanytenants,it
wasdevastating.Interviewees spoke ofdeepmelancholyanddistress.Many found
themselves socially isolated.
Although a small case study, thebook reveals the workings of a governmentin
the current neo-liberal climate. Low-income households beholden to the govern-
ment for support are given short shrift. The views, sensibilities and personal cir-
cumstances of the Millers Point and Sirius tenants were discounted. Instead, the
emphasis was on maximising the returns from the sale of the public housing and
that the money raised would be used to build more public housing. The lack of
respect for the tenants, the community and the historical significance of Millers
Point and Sirius was extreme.
Sydney, Australia Alan Morris
References
Dillard, J. F., & Ruchala, L. (2005). The rules are no game: from instrumental rationality to
administrativeevil.Accounting,Auditing&AccountabilityJournal,18(5),608–630.
Fitzgerald, S.,&Keating,C.(1991).Theurbanvillage.Sydney:Hale&Iremonger.
Acknowledgements
ThisstudywastotallyreliantonthewillingnessofpublichousingtenantsinMillers
Point and Sirius apartment building to share their histories, stories and emotions
with me, a total stranger in almost all instances. I deeply appreciate their gra-
ciousnessandpreparednesstosharethoughtsandfeelingsthatwereoftenintensely
personal and emotionally difficult to recount. The Millers Point Community
Working Party was very kind to entrust me with the task of compiling a report
examiningtheimpactofthedisplacement.TheresearchIdidforthereportwasthe
inspirationforthisbookandtheWorkingPartycontinuedtosupportmethroughout
the research process. I must reserve a special mention for Barney Gardner, a
member of the Working Party and convenor of the Millers Point, Dawes Point &
TheRocksPublicHousingTenantsGroup.Duringthecourseofthisproject,hehas
beenextremelyhelpful,generousandwelcoming.RobertMowbrayisanincredible
repository of knowledge, and his encouragement and close reading of the manu-
script were invaluable.
Mary Perkins and Shelter NSW introduced me to the Working Party and pro-
posedthatIdotheresearchthatultimatelyledtothisbook.MartinBarkerfromthe
RedfernLegalCentrehelpedmeaccesstenantswhohadmoved.Thecommentsby
Peter Marincowitz and Benjamin Hanckel on the various chapters were extremely
useful. Jo Milner’s transcribing of the interviews was excellent. Roberta Ryan, the
director oftheInstitute for Public Policyand Governance (IPPG)atthe University
of Technology Sydney, gave me the time and space to do the research which is
greatly appreciated. Funding was also provided by the IPPG for transcribing.
Sasindu Gamage did a superb job organising the interview transcripts using the
software package, NVivo. John Dunn, Ben Guthrie and Tiger Webb generously
allowedmetousetheirsuperbphotographs.NickMelchiorandIlariaWalkerfrom
Springerwerealwaysenthusiasticandencouraging.Thanksgotothereviewersfor
theirusefulcomments.Finally,aspecialthankstoSue,SophiaandJeremywho,as
always, were rock solid in their support.
ix
Contents
1 Introduction and Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 A Brief History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3 “A Unique Community” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4 The Build-Up to the Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5 The Impact of the Displacement Announcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6 Why Tenants Moved, Part 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7 Why Tenants Moved, Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8 The Impact of the Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
9 Conclusions—Where to from Here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Appendix A: Profile of Interviewees .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 133
Appendix B: Where Tenants Moved to.. .... .... .... .... ..... .... 137
Appendix C: Methodology... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 139
xi