Public Housing in Australia - Case Study Example

Newleaf Community Report Name: Number: Course: Lecturer: Date: Introduction The Government of New South Wales together with the national Government of Australia like any other country around the world have had problems with public housing for its citizens and the old housing system has be plagued with poor state of affairs that that caused a lot of problems within the system. Neighbourhoods are associated with social ills arising from poor house planning with issues like crime being abated by the system. The community has had to bear the consequences in a hard way of high crime rate, social class prejudice as the people within some of these estates are considered poor and uneducated and have very low employment rates and with burgeoning population all over the country and in Sydney in particular, will lead to strain on the available housing because of overcrowding. The houses are also too old to continue sustaining quality living standards going forward. Part of the housing in the community has decayed, are falling apart and a serious state of disrepair with overall related infrastructure like sewerage and water systems. In the past the government used to build housing estates as need arises in new areas and populations were still low in ‘top-down’ approach without any public participation. The past efforts to regenerate using this approach has come back to proof that it was not sustainable and reports have shown that a new approach has to be employed with planning policies being sought from the public. This led to the establishment of what has come to be known as NSW State Plan 2021 to address housing issues in Sydney. Literature review Researches have been done over a period of time which informed the establishment of the NSW State Plan 2021 with a parallel plan, the Sydney Metro Strategy 2036. More specifically NSW plan seeks to address issues of reduction of land out of increasing built environment due to unsustainable population growth. The available land use has to optimised to cater for increased population as cities become more urbanised. Bonnyrigg population is estimated to double over a period of 15 years from 2008. (Council of Social Service of NSW 2008) The available housing is equally worn out and falling apart and with the state of disrepair new contemporary housing have to be put up. In a bid to improve infrastructure, the government has to cater for members of the community who are not able to invest in private houses out of their own volition as costs involved might be out of reach for them hence the need for social housing where land is optimised by building apartments in some areas which have the capacity to accommodate more persons in an area. This when divided to individual members for private ownership reduces drastically the price per unit. (Gilmour et al 2010). The concept of sustainable building in NSW plan is to reduce energy and water consumption in a new system of development clean living environment through open gardened spaces. The building are build in such a way that less infrastructure in water and energy is needed while meeting a bigger demand for these services. (Bunker 2005). The NSW Government launched Sydney Metro Strategy 2036, to help address issue of rapid urbanisation and need for integrated rapid transport system to evacuate increased number of commuters who can cause a major strain on the current system.(NSW Government no date). The entire plan is to be implemented on with related infrastructure in NSW State plan 2021. Public housing in Australia Public housing in Australia is planed and implemented by state governments and territories like town or city councils. It is funded by both state and federal government. Every state has a department to implement the housing plans in place to meet the current demand. After development the houses management are outsourced to non-profit management institutions which will oversee the tenancy. Such institutions are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the targeted members of the population are catered for. There are two main types of dwellings in Australia; inner-city medium to high rise buildings with apartments and suburban fully detached master planned houses. Major cities play host to inner city high rise apartments due to high population coupled with no extra land while low density suburban buildings are found in all towns. Over the recent past public housing system has been transformed to social welfare accommodation system where the government engages other stakeholders to join hands to provide high class housing to the less fortunate members of the society who do not have much income to afford luxury houses or normal with the current market prices. One such project to be discussed in this papern is NSW State Plan 2021, which is being undertaken in Bonnyrigg, Western Sydney. (Bindom and Rowe 2012). Benefits of the NSW State Plan 2021 NSW State Plan 2021 is a grand plan which if implemented can result varied positive results for the community that is designed to benefit and the government in development and trying to meet social justice for all its citizens. To ensure uniform development, the project will cover a wider area and ensure that the development is even throughout the area to be covered, no particular area will have a concentration different from the other. The plan runs for a period of 13years with 18 stages of development put into a structured phase achievable midterm. The midterm development ensures that the small plans are effectively attained within specified times and no little thing will be left behind. The already completed phases (first 2) have proved to change people lifestyle by bringing in better looking neighbourhood and a rapid bus transit service that wasn’t there before. So far the project looks to be sustainable in planning and implementation. So far services like accessibility to services, transport and related amenities have transformed livelihood in this community. The plan seeks to develop a community of social responsibility amongst neighbours in which every person has a duty to the neighbour devoid of social ills. The community will mix amongst themselves in an effort to eradicate negative impacts of disorganised housing. Crime and other anti-social behaviour will no longer be abated. When individual own their homes, it bestows on them a greater responsibility to look after their property. Home ownership is an Australian value and it cannot be gainsaid how this will create excitement and pride among the community members in taking care of their acquisition. Majority of these structures will be sold to private owners. As a government plan to rebalance wealth for social justice, people with no previous home ownership are encouraged to come forward to purchase the new homes for themselves. Since the project is implemented en masse, it will be cheaper to purchase than one building an own house, through economies of scale. It is bound to attract new home owners who would otherwise have taken longer or even never to able to acquire houses with the project mainly targeted at middle class Australians. Newleaf project is set to provide jobs for the entire period which seems to go in tandem with the government’s plans to provide jobs, provide sustainable development, provide decent and grow the economy. Why Bonnyrigg Bonnyrigg is a suburb in western Sydney and all along has been characterised by a residential place developed in the 1970’s with a housing system commonly referred as Radburn Housing Model. It was adopted from the United States of America and Britain which was then a good housing system. As has been mentioned above, the system was characterised by residential area where house backyards are facing the street and lanes used as common entry into the homes. Currently the residential area is to be regenerated and revitalised to have a new look residential area characterised by contemporary housing and 833 dwellings will be replaced by 2330 new homes which will implemented over a period of 13 years. As a result of rapid urbanisation, the area is expected to increase the population from the previous 2,900 to about 6,850 to cater for more persons per area. For the first time this area of Sydney is envisioned to be served by rapid bus service and commuter train in conjunction with Sydney Metro Strategy 2036. The project is to be implemented under PPP with several stakeholders besides the government of NSW. Becton Property Group, St. George Community Housing Association, Westpac Banking Corporation, Spotless Services Australia and Bonnyrigg Management. Becton Property Group is the consortium leader and is charged with the management of the entire development over the period, Westpac Banking is the financier, St. Georges Community Association is the tenancy management to ensure that no existing tenants will lose their entitlements as it is expected that all existing tenants before development have to be housed fully. All facilities will be managed and maintained centrally under the charge of Spotless Group Australia. The entire project is expected to cost about $733 million under the management of what is now referred as Newleaf Communities Project. (NSW Government no date) The project has been divided into 18 stages with mid term plans to be implemented in phases that are achievable. As phases are completed tenants will be allowed to occupy to minimize movement meaning any area not being constructed, tenants will still be occupying and when a phase under construction is complete those who are occupying an area to be on the next phase move in to the newly completed houses. Two stages have been completed. Stage 1 was completed in June 2010 having 39 social houses and 67 allocated for private dwellings. Within that neighbourhood a new park was constructed with sporting facilities and roads. The houses are selling at between $330,000 and $535,000 while on average in Australia houses sale at over $600,000 meaning in this project houses will be cheaper and within reach of majority of residents. Stage 2 was completed in July 2011 with included 40 social houses and 64 private dwellings and stage 3 is an ongoing project right now with an intention to result in 75 social and 84 private will be complete by this December. The private dwellings in stage 3 have been pre-sold. In all the stages, as planned houses are pre-sold way before construction by the would-be tenants depositing to the management 10% of the value of the house. Private dwellings are detached from each other which wasn’t a feature with the former housing which is being demolished and the social housing section features apartments buildings rising four to five floors up. (NSW Government, 2012) The project implementation is labour intensive and due to its time frame it will for sure provide employment opportunities to the people from Bonnyrigg be it skilled or not making the supplement their other incomes to enable them purchase the buildings. Other antisocial ills like crime will go down with the new style with houses facing pathways, and roads and open spaces that can be used for recreation for all in the neighbourhood making the people interact more, knowing each other and reducing crime as a result. NSW State Plan 2021 along with Sydney Metro Strategic Plan 2036 will upgrade the entire Sydney infrastructure in provision of modern housing to cater for increasing population and easy movement from one point to another served with rapid bus service and modern commuter rail transport. Recommendation on sustainability of the project For such a project to be sustainable and to achieve the desired results to the community the implementation has to do a proper evaluation of the future population growth so that in a few decades down the line the current plan becomes irrelevant and will need to be redeveloped to address the needs of that time. The economy is expected to grow and with it will bring new challenges of more infrastructure needed. The entire Sydney population will grow and even more housing will be needed so other plans should be put in place for other areas to regenerate housing. Living environment has to be clean for habitation and therefore a right balance has to be observed between housing and providing enough vegetation in form of trees planted in open spaces to help clean the air the poisonous gases emitted from machinery and vehicles serving the community in the fiture. Conclusion To gain public support in its implementation to ensure that community issues of importance are recognised and respected, the government of NSW widely consulted over 4000 persons in conjunction with Fairfield City Council from December 2004 to October 2007. With the wide consultation and the communities values having being factored the project implementation will be completed in time are planned and will sure change the entire lifestyle of the residents. Open spaces will allow the community to interact more, know one’s neighbour and will result in elimination of antisocial behaviours associated with poor housing and create a sense of more responsibility amongst the community members. (NSW Government 2012) The Newleaf community is expected to have paradigm shift from how it looked like with new contemporary buildings coming up and this might pose a problem in the government’s quest to provide housing to all in NSW. Bonnyrigg will have a facelift and this might interest the well to do people from other places and be attracted to buy the private dwellings denying the chance the less fortunate to acquire decent houses. This is called gentrification. Bonnyrigg used to be predominantly low-income and working middle class and the intention of the government is to house all theses people in the Newleaf Community. To the government of NSW, the project, together with Sydney Metro Strategic Plan 2036, will surely make Bonnyrigg and the entire Sydney rank favourably among the most liveable cities in Australia and the world over. References Bindon, Julie and Rowe, Michael, June 2012, ‘City of Sydney Announce Billion Dollar Improvement Program’, JBA Planning, pp. 2, retrieved on 25 October 2012 from http://www.jbaplanning.com.au/Resources/Newsletters/JBA_Alert_June_2012.pdf Bindon, Julie and Rowe, Michael, June 2012, ‘Metropolitan Strategy Review Government Releases Discussion Paper’, JBA Planning, pp. 3, retrieved on 25 October 2012 from http://www.jbaplanning.com.au/Resources/Newsletters/JBA_Alert_June_2012.pdf Bunker, R., Holloway, D. and Randolph, B., 2005, 'The Expansion of Urban Consolidation in Sydney: Social Impacts and Implications', Australian Planner, 42 (3), 16-25. Council of Social Service of NSW, February 2008, Submission to Fairfield City Council: Bonnyrigg Living Communitiues Project Concept Plan and Stage 1 Project Application, Surry Hills 2010, Sydney. Gilmour, T., Wiesel, I., Pinnegar, S. And Loosemore, M., 2010, ‘Social infrastructure partnerships: a firm rock in a storm?’, Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, UK 15(3), 247-259. NSW Government, NSW 2021: A Plan to Make NSW Number One, retrieved on 27 October 2021 from http://www.2021.nsw.gov.au/ NSW Government, July 2012, A New Planning System for New South Wales, pp. 10, http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=fUggrUzDe3A%3d&tabid=68&language=en--‐US) NWS, Transport for NSW, retrieved on 26 October 2012 from http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/content/land-use-and-transport-planning. Appendix Field trip report Held a meeting on Thursday 18th October, 2012 The meeting was held at between 4-5pm. Attendees:………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Discussion: We discussed the subject specific requirements on how to write the report but we could not agree how the report would look like. We resolved to go to the field to collect the required information first on Monday 22nd October, 2012. We divided ourselves into two groups of two and three. The two will visit Spotless Services Australia offices to seek information about the project. The other group of three to visit the Bonnyrigg grounds to observe a make a report on the field on the oproject and implementation. We also resolved to visit the university library to review information about the project on Saturday the 20th afternoon and every member to make notes about the subject matter. Saturday 20th October, 2012 Attendees:....................................................................................................... Met shortly to review the literature we came up with to summarise the relevant information on the subject matter. We travelled on Sunday evening to be able to arrive Bonnyrigg in the morning to accomplish our mission before the end of the day. Wednesday 24th October, 2012 Attendees: ............................................................................................................. Met to collate information we collected during the field trip. We resolved to meet after tutorial with course tutor to seek clarity on how to present our final report for purposes of submission tutorial lesson. We agree to divide the work based on how our tutor will have advised us to present depending on subtopics to be done be every individual member of the group for three days from Friday to Sunday to be touched and thereafter meet on Monday the 29th October to write the final report. The meeting with our course tutor was fruitful as we understood how the report would look like. We immediately subdivided the work among all members. Inspection notes report As noted above during the field trip, one group visited Bonnyrigg to inspect project implementation and another to Spotless Services Australia offices to enquire on all the relevant information. Both groups were to did the same observations Observe the former housing to find out there current state -plan, community places, effects on the population, the problems currently with it NSW State Master Plan 2021 -read through the master plan -query sustainability from the management -project implementation timelines -the overall costs involved -specific areas to be covered -how does the overall plan fit into the Sydney Metro Strategic Plan 2036 Implementation of the overall project The number of stages The completed phases How is it different from former system Information on population The numbers of former compare with the envisaged Public consultation report -residents’ views Read More