Mass Homeless Eviction by South Sydney Council In a sudden sweep on inner city houses, South Sydney Council yesterday attempted to evict around 50 squatters from council-owned premises on Broadway, Sydney. Squatters tried to enter into negotiations with Council staff. The Council refused to negotiate and called the police to have the residents evicted without any notice. "This provocative move by South Sydney City Council will only lead to an increase in the numbers of homeless on Sydney streets during the Olympic Games", said Gavin Sullivan of the Sydney Housing Action Collective (SHAC). "These buildings were being neglected and vandalised before the squatters came along. Rather than sleep rough, they moved in and looked after the place. Yet the Council refuses to negotiate to let them stay or give them reasonable time to find other accommodation. With 30 000 people already homeless in the greater Sydney area alone, the Council have a responsibility to help the residents - not just turf them out." The buildings, which are listed as items of environmental heritage, are to be demolished and handed over to the Walker Corporation to build 130 exclusive residential apartments. The Walker Corporation - which has recently lost a court case with a former business partner over Walker's inability to arrange planning approval for a South Coast development- will not begin work on development for some time. "We have nowhere else to go", said Meredith, one of the many squatters set to join the growing number of homeless on Sydney's streets. "The Council should let us stay - at least until we can find somewhere else to live". At a Council meeting last night, an urgent motion was passed allowing the squatters a negotiation period with the council on terms of their residency. Yet other representatives from the property division of the Council want to push ahead with the immediate mass eviction. Many of the affected residents have been squeezed out of the private rental market by Olympic-exacerbated rent increases and no-ground evictions. Publicly, South Sydney City Council has repeatedly acknowledged the impact that the Olympic games is having on the levels of homelessness and the availability of affordable housing in Sydney. This eviction, just two weeks before the start of the Olympics, clearly shows the council's disregard for homelessness. 6 -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
