Ermington Public Housing: Speaking Up For Those Who Can’t.
While other areas’ get recognised in the media, Ermington gets ignored.
The public housing commission in the Ermington area rarely gets its spotlight treatment when discussions about housing commission arise in the media bubble. While only 17% of the area is public housing (Sydney Suburb Review, 2020), the call for advocacy of better conditions and renovations has fallen silent on the ears of its citizens.
When discussing public housing it’s easier to turn to the facts instead of the people to understand just how big of a problem public housing can be. The statistics, as released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, show that “In 2017–18, over 800,000 Australians were in social housing, living in over 400,000 dwellings across the country.”
And “The number of community housing dwellings more than doubled between 2008–09 and 2017–18 from 39,800 to 87,800” This being due to the shift towards community organisations taking over public housing.
When it comes to the real people living within these dwellings nonetheless, the attitude is much different than the governments. When viewing the TV program ‘Struggle Street’ it isn't very hard to see the enormity and impact that public housing has on not just Western Sydney as a whole, but the entirety of New South Whales both economically and personally.
The need for public understanding and connection to create change come mostly from personal stories. Unfortunately, the stigma against people who live in public housing or “housos” has prevented real social change from being done.
When it comes to information on the Ermington housing commission, the facts; statistics; and real life opinions and people are barely there. This is why advocating for social change to allow the minority of Ermington to speak up and have a voice.
The surrounding suburbs such as Kissing Point, Spurway, and Bartlett; should use their privilege and understanding to call for better conditions and more of a voice to be allowed through the propagation of public housing.
The link between Ermington and social exclusion stemming from public housing can be seen online and in real life as the stereotypes of people who live in public housing areas become more prominent.
The reason why the community needs to band together and demand better conditions is because the tenants of the properties have no property rights within the estates. Michael Darcy and Dallas Rogers have stated within their study of public housing in Sydney that “Public housing tenants in Australia have no property rights…Even though they pay rent, their tenure is not determined by any commercial contract in respect to a particular property or dwelling…”. In simple terms it means that the Housing Authority is allowed to relocate a tenant to a different dwelling or neighbourhood or forcefully evict the tenant based on a Housing Authority assessment (Darcy, Rogers 2014).
Another study ‘Unpacking Social Exclusion in Western Sydney: Exploring the Role of Place and Tenure’ can be looked at in depth to understand the need for social change in Ermington. “…Given the emergence of both areas of poverty and luxury privatopias…much of the discussion of disadvantage in western Sydney has centred on the social problems of the large public housing estates…”. The cynosure on western Sydney is critical because western Sydney has been positioned in policy and in the public as the main focus of disadvantages which has been driven by low household income and employment levels (Murray, Randolph, Ruming 2010). The link between Ermington and social exclusion stemming from public housing can be seen online and in real life as the stereotypes of people who live in public housing areas become more prominent.
In an online forum on Whirlpool discussing the area of Ermington, ‘Ermington Sydney — dodgy place to live?’, the clear association of stereotypes and social exclusion can be seen, which makes social change harder to enact.The original poster asks
“Hey guys, Anyone know if Ermington is a nice place to live? My cousins came from Melbourne and they wanted to buy a property in that area. I am just wondering if anyone know some details about this area such as shops/safety/schools? They have kids so they are looking at the schools as well. They want to buy at Ermington mainly due to their budget constraint.”
To which one replies:
“budget constraint it’s a povo area with everything that goes with that, that’s the main reason people live in Ermington.”
The need for social change can be done by the surrounding suburbs of Ermington and Parramatta. If Ermington doesn’t want to be known as the “povo” area, then the call to action for social change needs to happen. The demand for better quality properties as well as regular upkeep needs to be realised in full by the residents and the local government officials. The ways to call for change can be done by contacting Housing NSW and the City of Parramatta Council and calling for an inquiry into the conditions of Ermington public housing and demanding better conditions and upkeep of the housing commission areas.
Creating the hashtag #NotAnotherPovoArea and #NotAnotherHouso is also another way to call for social change through personal stories being told by real Ermington public housing residents. It is through these actions, the residents of western Sydney can shine a spotlight on the lesser known public housing areas and bring change for good.
References:
AIHW, 2019, Housing assistance in Australia 2019, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Darcy. Michael, Rogers. Dallas, 2014, Inhabitance, place-making and the right to the city: public housing redevelopment in Sydney, International Journal of Housing Policy
Murray. D, Randolph. B, Ruming. K.J, 2010, Unpacking Social Exclusion in Western Sydney: Exploring the Role of Place and Tenure, Geographical Research
