Emergency Accommodation and Support: Link2home on 1800 152 152, 24hrs a day, 7 days a week
Contact us
Contact us

Explorer Street, Eveleigh public housing estate development proposal 

Home News Explorer Street, Eveleigh public housing estate development proposal 
Back to News

Explorer Street, Eveleigh public housing estate development proposal 

The NSW Government  is proposing to redevelop this long-standing public housing estate, which currently consists of 46 public housing dwellings and home to 98 people (as at March 2023). The current estate is in a townhouse configuration (ranging from 1 to 3 storeys); with each dwelling having between 3 to 5 bedrooms.

The NSW Government proposes to redevelop the site in order to achieve:

  • 32,600 square metres of residential flat buildings providing approximately 400 homes including 30% social housing and 20% affordable housing (by extrapolation this would translate to: 120 social, 80 affordable and 200 private dwellings)
  • 3 blocks ranging from 4 to 13 storeys
  • 20% of all affordable housing to be provided as Aboriginal Affordable Housing (that being 20% of the 80 affordable dwellings).

Shelter NSW has recently made a submission to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment regarding its proposal for new development controls and zoning for the site. Overall we have acknowledged that while an improved proposal compared to an earlier one made in 2020 under the Communities Plus model we remain very concerned.
 
Almost three years ago in December 2020, we made a  submission registering our strong concerns about the redevelopment proposal at the time. In 2023 many of our concerns remain.

The proposed development is on NSW public land, home to a number of public housing tenants some of whom have lived there for 20-30 years and a long-standing and connected Aboriginal community. These tenants are already feeling the impact of the redevelopment proposal.

We acknowledge and support the NSW Government’s move away from the ‘Communities Plus’ model, which shoehorned public housing estate redevelopment into a fixed 70:30 (private:social) housing mix and more generally drove the Land and Housing Corporation to sell valuable public land and dwellings. In our submission, however we asserted that there are further options for the Government to improve and refine its approach to deliver an even better public outcome on this site and in this precinct.