The State Government is being called on to give assurances to residents of a social housing complex in Bar Beach after the properties were sold from underneath them.
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| Tania Mihailuk [Image Source: Jonathan Ng, via The Daily Telegraph]. |
The decision comes shortly after residents, who are mostly pensioners, were given assurances by the Government that they had secure housing for at least the next decade.
Shadow Social Housing minister Tania Mihailuk visited affected residents with Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp on Friday and expressed concern as to where these residents will be going in the future.
"They haven't been told where they're going at all, they've just been given mixed messages," she said.
"To be told one day they can stay for ten years, next to be told they're being evicted."
One of the biggest concerns for Labor is what the potential benefit for the sale will be, and whether or not it will benefit everyone.
Tania Mihailuk has asked, "are the community of Newcastle going to gain from new social, affordable housing, or is this simply going to be again going to be given out to developers and investors to make some money"?
Mihailuk has expressed particular concern over the overall way the news was broken to the residents, saying it was severely mismanaged.
"The Government should have ensured that they were being looked after, that they were councilled, given advice, assistance," she said
"Before you give an eviction notice you actually talk to them [the residents] abut alternative accommodation and where they can go."
