[North Eveleigh] Meet the Waterloo CHPs at REDWatch 6 Aug / What is Social Housing / Questions for CHPs / Redfern Lord Mayor meeting

Tue Jul 28 15:59:06 AEST 2026

Dear REDWatch members, supporters and agencies,

Meet the Waterloo South Community Housing Providers (CHPs) - REDWatch 6th August 6pm

What is Social Housing?

Some of the Issues Community Housing Providers need to address

Questions for CHPs from tenants

Redfern Lord Mayor Social Housing Tenants' Forum 6th August 11am
Please note - this email contains hyperlinks. This means that if you see a blue underlined word or phrase that you can click on it and go directly to a document or to get more information.
Meet the Waterloo South Community Housing Providers (CHPs) - REDWatch 6th August 6pm
The Waterloo South CHPs have agreed to attend the next REDWatch meeting and talk directly to tenants and the community. They will address: What is Community Housing? How does it differ from public housing? Who are the CHPs and what experience do they bring to Waterloo South? This meeting with a focus on CHPs and the provision of social housing.
CHPs will manage new social housing in Waterloo South. All three of the CHPs are already housing tenants from Waterloo South relocations, even though City West is not managing any Homes NSW owned social housing. You can find out more about the CHPs and their policies prior to the meeting on the websites for Link-Wentworth<https://www.linkwentworth.org.au/>, Birribee Housing<https://birribee.org.au/> and City West Housing<https://citywesthousing.com.au/>.
REDWatch has provided the CHPs with some tenant questions (see later in this email) and in our last email we also provided some broader questions about issues CHPs need to address over the coming months (also repeated later in this email). There will be an opportunity to raise your questions at the meeting.
So come along and hear from the CHPs on Thursday 6th August 2026 from 6:00 - 7:30pm at Counterpoint's Factory Community Centre 67 Raglan Street Waterloo or join us online on Zoom http://tinyurl.com/RedwatchMeetingZoom. You can promote this meeting electronically by sharing our Facebook post<https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1457425613080962&set=pb.100064406121052.-2207520000> or flyer<http://www.redwatch.org.au/eventnotice/260727redwp> or asking Navin for a poster at The Factory.
What is Social Housing?
This REDWatch CHP meeting will focus on social housing. Given the confusion about the terms like public and social housing, the Waterloo Redevelopment Group in 2024 requested the Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA) to prepare a Social Housing Factsheet<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/Waterloo/stage1/260728chia/view> which is on the REDWatch website. This may be helpful in explaining some of the key differences between Public, Aboriginal and Community housing models leading into the coming REDWatch meeting. This sheet compares ownership, management, dwellings under management, eligibility for Commonwealth Rent Assistance, regulation and complaints across the three different types of social housing.
We will leave the complexities of affordable housing for another meeting, but for some information on the differences between social and affordable see AHURI's Brief What is the difference between social housing and affordable housing - and why do they matter?<https://www.ahuri.edu.au/analysis/brief/what-difference-between-social-housing-and-affordable-housing-and-why-do-they-matter>
Some of the Issues Community Housing Providers need to address
With Stockland looking to engage the community on building design, REDWatch thinks that tenants needed to know more about how the CHPs operate and manage buildings to be able to make useful input on building design. While we will not be able to get into this detail at the August REDWatch meeting these are the areas we have said in the last REDWatch update that CHPs need to address over coming months.

  1.  Introduce themselves and what they currently do in social and affordable housing, and how does this differ from social housing run by Homes NSW (i.e. public housing)
  2.  What they have learnt from running social and affordable housing about:
     *   The buildings - build quality, accessibility and design.
     *   How do they manage buildings differently to Homes NSW?
        *   addressing building access via swipe card v concierge?
        *   response to non-resident access and antisocial behaviour?
     *   Providing improved supports / wrap around support for tenants.
        *   how this interfaces with the wider service NGO and Govt service system.
  3.  The Social Impact Management Plan says CHPs will be responsible for mitigating many of the adverse impacts from the redevelopment.
     *   How much of this is assumed from CHP business as usual?
     *   How much will need to be in additional to business as usual?
  4.  The plan looks like there may be instances where two CHPs jointly manage buildings, as is the case with social housing above the Waterloo Metro with Link Wentworth and Birribee.
     *   How is it envisaged this joint management will function?
There are broader issues that CHPs may not be best placed to answer that are probably questions for senior management in Homes NSW or the NSW Government to explain rather than the CHPs.

  *   Why does Homes NSW want CHPs to run social housing rather than Government?
  *   Why can't public housing tenants get the same "wrap around support" that CHPs are expected to offer their tenants?
Questions for CHPs from tenants
A meeting of Waterloo tenants has come up with the following questions they would like the CHPs to answer. These have been provided to the CHPs by REDWatch.
Tenants would like clarification on the following topics:

  *   How is rent calculated after transferring to a Community Housing Provider? At present tenants' rent is generally calculated at 25% of a tenant's gross income. Does this calculation include Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA)? If so, is 100% of the CRA included in the rent calculation?
  *   What is considered urgent maintenance under a CHP, and what are the expected response timeframes?
  *   Can tenants choose to pay their rent themselves, or are they required to provide the CHP with Centrelink rent deduction authority?
  *   What are the income eligibility requirements for becoming or remaining a CHP tenant?
  *   Does a tenant's income affect their Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), and how does this impact the amount of rent they pay?
  *   What are the CHP policies for managing antisocial behaviour, including disputes between neighbours and situations involving tenants experiencing mental health issues?
  *   Do CHPs accept tenants with disabilities and what supports are available?
  *   Can tenants choose their own electricity and internet providers?
  *   What are the CHP policies regarding pets, including the number and types of pets allowed?
  *   Can tenants have security screen doors and flyscreens in their properties?
Since this list was supplied REDWatch has received a couple of other questions that go to changes in management necessary to address current problems experienced in public housing.

  *   What will stop social housing tenants from trashing the new properties within a year?
  *   What will stop social housing tenants in the new development dumping rubbish, throwing food on the ground for vermin to eat, leaving dog experiments everywhere, terrible screams at night, etc.?
Redfern Lord Mayor Social Housing Tenants' Forum 6th August 11am
The Redfern Lord Mayor Social Housing Tenants' Forum will be held on Thursday 6 August, 11am-12pm at the Redfern Community Room (Redfern Park Oval).
The forum is an opportunity for social housing residents to raise questions and hear directly from Homes NSW, the City of Sydney and NSW Police.
Residents are invited to stay for a light lunch from 12pm-12.30pm, with time to speak one-on-one with staff from Homes NSW and the City of Sydney about individual matters.

Regards,

Geoff
Geoffrey Turnbull
REDWatch Spokesperson
Ph Wk: (02) 8004 1490  Mob: 0418 457 392
email: spokesperson at redwatch.org.au<mailto:spokesperson at redwatch.org.au>
web: www.redwatch.org.au<http://www.redwatch.org.au/>
FB: www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/<http://www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.redwatch.org.au/pipermail/northeveleigh/attachments/20260728/d6583b65/attachment-0001.html>