One of Sav Durac’s friends locked himself in his room and didn’t come out for more than a week after being served an eviction notice from their Sydney boarding house a fortnight ago.
In the end, an ambulance showed up, taking him to an acute ward at St Vincent’s hospital down the road. He’s still there.
“It’s a disaster,” 80-year-old Mr Durac said. “I feel hopeless.”
Sav Durac, a resident of the Paddington boarding house, was devastated upon receiving an eviction notice. (ABC News: Keana Naugton )
Clutching the eviction letter, Mr Durac sits in the boarding house on Selwyn Street in Paddington where he has lived for 56 years. Many of the tenants here are older, on pensions or living with a disability.
Mr Durac is one of 30 vulnerable residents, all of which are men, who have been in various states of distress after receiving notice from LFD Developments, who plans to turn their homes into four luxury apartments.
City of Sydney Council is taking the developer to court in December, but residents have been told they will have to vacate the property by Feburary 1 regardless of the result.
It will be a landmark case to decide if state planning laws are adequate to protect affordable housing that is in private hands, but it will not help the Selwyn Street residents.
The eviction letter told residents the boarding house would close on February 1, even if the denial of the development proposal is upheld in court. (ABC News: Keana Naugton )
Attention has now turned to where the men will go next, with the eviction deadline looming a large shadow over the two boarding houses impacted.
“I am afraid, I don’t know what will be,” Mr Durac said.
“You can’t stop it.”
NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson said her office is “working tirelessly” to find suitable accommodation and ensure the residents do not become homeless.
But community advocates and the residents believe the government is not doing enough to find replacement homes, nor manage the growing distress of the men.
It is likely residents will have to leave their neighbourhood to find affordable or social housing. (ABC News: Keana Naugton )
Elderly residents forced to move away
A local postie knocked on Mike Mannix’s door to ask for help with delivering the eviction letters to the boarding house residents two and a half weeks ago.
Mr Mannix lives up the road from the boarding houses and has spearheaded the community campaign to stop the development, which has now shifted to help the men find new homes.
Neighhbour Mike Mannix said the residents are valued members of the local community. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
It is expected that residents like Mr Durac, who have lived in the area for decades, will have to leave in search of affordable housing.
“They’re going to be relocated into a completely foreign bloody environment at age 80,” Mr Mannix said.
“They want to stay exactly where they are, there’s no appetite to move.
“Our big fear is obviously one, that there won’t be anything found for the men, and two, what is found is going to be unsafe and insecure.”
He said the response from the state government and the housing minister has been inadequate.
It took three months and multiple follow ups for Ms Jackson’s office to respond to Mr Mannix’s request for assistance on behalf of the boarding house men via email.
The boarding houses are in one of the most expensive suburbs in Sydney and have been operating since the end of World War II. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
Mr Mannix said the distress of the resident — Mr Durac’s friend — who has been taken to hospital, is indicative of the level of stress and inadequate support that all the residents have received.
“His situation kind of exemplifies what’s happening as far as the services goes,” he said.
“We’ve got [those services] engaged now, but then we’ve only got that through applying pressure.”
A spokesperson from Ms Jackson’s office said she is working to “ensure all residents are supported and relocated to safe, secure and suitable accommodation so that they do not become homeless”.
“Our office has heard directly from the residents and people on the ground and we are in constant communication with key service providers responding to this matter,” the spokesperson said.
Since October 23, Homes NSW, the government body responsible for social housing, has set up hubs at these boarding houses and are hosting information sessions to connect tenants with the relevant services.
Elaine Macnish, CEO of the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, said her staff will work with these 30 residents to find new accommodation for them, but she acknowledged it was unlikely they would be able to stay in Paddington, where the median weekly rent for a one-bedroom home is $613.
“Over the last few years, we’ve seen an increase in boarding houses closing, so the stock is reducing and the cost is increasing. That’s putting pressure on both ways, and we’re certainly seeing higher demand,” she said.
“Certainly rent, I would say, would absolutely not be possible to actually get in terms of a private rental.”
Elaine Macnish from the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre said it is unlikely the residents will be able to remain in Paddington. (ABC News: Xanthe Gregory)
Council makes moves to step in
After initially dismissing calls from the community to purchase the property themselves, the City of Sydney Council moved a motion last week resolving to approach LFD Developments to discuss the potential for acquisition.
The council has also written to a number of community housing providers to ask if they would be willing to purchase the site, with a possible contribution from the City.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore has made a direct request to Ms Jackson for a state contribution if the developer agrees to sell the property to a community housing provider, as well as seeking her commitments to finding alternative accommodation for the residents which is both affordable and local.
There were more than 1,100 registered boarding houses in NSW as of January 2020, with an estimated 25 to 100 per cent more in the unregistered illegal sector, according to a government review of the Boarding Houses Act.
Ms Macnish reiterated that residents are often living at registered boarding houses as a first step out of homelessness, or while they wait on the social housing list.
Locals are fighting to protect the boarding houses from development. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
One of the persistent issues with boarding properties is the lack of protection for residents, because it is not considered official social housing.
The State Environmental Planning Policy SEPP (Housing) 2021 is designed to protect affordable rental housing stock in NSW, but in the case of boarding houses, it is frequently and easily circumnavigated by developers.
That fact must change, Ms Macnish said.
“We’ve been waiting for a review of the SEPP which was supposed to be re-looked at in 2017, and we are still waiting,” she said.
While calls for broader reform persists, the residents of Selwyn Steet have run out of time.
“What can I do?” Mr Durac said.
