‘But if a D-grade celebrity can’t afford a house, then who can?’ Good question, Mark. And the answer is increasingly: no one, except those who already do. But ‘SOLD! Who broke the Australian dream?’ also asks a more interesting question; what are the causes of housing unaffordability and what can we do to fix the system?

Shelter NSW was most pleased to partner with Everybody’s Home to host a screening of this new, ‘comedic’ documentary in Newtown on 5 November, with special guests including May Azize, National Spokesperson for Everybody’s Home, and a leading voice on housing affordability, homelessness, and renters’ rights, Dr Matthew Lorenzon, a long-term renter, parent, and arts marketer who advocates for housing stability, sharing his lived experience of repeated forced moves and insecurity, Angela Cartwright, CEO of Better Renting, a national housing justice organisation working with renters to secure stable, affordable, and comfortable homes, and Bill Code, Director and Producer of the documentary, an impact filmmaker with a journalism background at Al Jazeera, BBC, Guardian Australia and SBS.

Following the screening of the movie, a panel discussion was hosted by Thomas Chailloux, Shelter NSW’s Senior Policy Officer, to discuss the themes raised in the movie in more depth and talk about the solutions to the broken housing system in Australia and NSW.

While our housing system itself is no laughing matter, ‘Sold!’ keeps its analysis light-hearted and straightforward, allowing ordinary community members to engage with a complex and sometimes disheartening topic in a more positive and relaxed way than usual.

It was a pleasure for Shelter NSW to welcome such an engaged and diverse audience at Dendy Newtown, and to work with Everybody’s Home to keep the outrage at our unfair housing system alive. To make it hopeful and practical, we also talked about what we can go together to keep the real solutions to the ‘housing crisis’ high on the agenda in the lead up to NSW state elections and beyond.

Thank you to panel members and all the friends and supporters of Shelter NSW who came to this well attended event.

Evicted!: A Modern Romance screening
As a part of our Local Small Commitments Allocation (LSCA) grant we received last year, we have been working to deliver a series of educational and awareness raising events to bring the community together to celebrate 50 years of advocacy for housing justice. One of the commitments we made was to do a screening of the humorous and relevant ‘Evicted: A Modern Romance’ which we hosted in November at Event Cinemas, George Street.

We were pleased to see many of our members and supporters showing up, enjoying the film, and engaging in discussion afterwards about the themes. While the film focuses on a group of fictional friends being evicted from their house in Sydney Inner West, it is a story all too familiar to all people who rent their home.

We thoroughly enjoyed meeting with so many of you at both the ‘SOLD!’ and ‘Evicted!’ screenings and to discuss these issues that can be quite difficult and confusing at times in an accessible and entertaining way.

Thank you to all who participated in other events we have run through the LSCA grant including walking tours and film screenings, and we look forward to continuing these celebrations in the new year with more exciting events!