[Janev1]

I loved the article in this morning’s SMH ‘Containers of Strata Shame’.  Well put.   I live in Eastwood and there is a flood of new arrivals, buying up houses and converting them into ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ boarding houses (it is very difficult to tell the difference) using the NSW Government SEPP  28  ‘Affordable’ housing legislation.  They say they are making a ‘granny flat’ for overseas family. This ‘flat’ then gets ‘certified’ by a private certifier, waved through the local council and off they go,  putting partions up in the bedrooms, filling the place with up to three people per bedroom at at least $200 per week each,  people living  in garages etc etc –  all the way to super profits.  (Neighbours get three day’s notice of commencement of work).   No regulation whatsoever, no parking (according to the SEPP poor people don’t have cars, only bikes so they only have to provide bike ‘parking’), no fire escapes, no ‘working with children and young people’ checks on the owners/rack renters, no washing and drying facilities, rubbish overflowing the bins. They are running businesses in a residential area, they don’t have to pay land tax and one wonders if the ATO is on to them. I’m shocked that in a rich country people are forced to live like this. Eastwood is in the Macquarie University catchment area.   Macquarie University makes super profits (in the millions of dollars) from overseas students, it has lots and lots of land upon which could be built affordable, good quality housing. Instead it chooses to ‘outsource’ accommodation to the private market, with predictable and somewhat shocking results.  Yep, wait until there is a fire and lots of deaths.  But, will it change anything???  I think not. Despite the fact there was a NSW Parliamentary inquiry into boarding houses, nothing has changed. In fact there are more and more by the day. At the recent Sydney Home and Building show, the feature item was ‘how to make a motza out of granny flats’. Yeah, but oppressing others. 

[Author]

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