POST-SOP HOUSING COMMISSION INFORMATION SESSION

🚨OVER 1000 PEOPLE HAVE SIGNED THE PETITION TO OPPOSE THIS DEVELOPMENT (20% of the Sydney Olympic Park Population)

Thank you to everyone who attended tonight’s community meeting and took the time to ask questions, listen and raise concerns.

Unfortunately, rather than providing reassurance, the meeting has left us with even more concerns.

We appreciate that the plans are still being developed and are yet to be finalised for submission. However, what we currently know raises serious questions about whether this is the right location and whether the infrastructure and services are in place to properly support the people who will ultimately live here.

❗ Where are the essential services?

We still have no clear answers around:

❌ No local school
❌ No bulk-billing medical services
❌ No nearby hospital
❌ No nearby police station
❌ No nearby post office
❌ No major banks
❌ No readily accessible, fee-free ATMs
❌ No full-size supermarket
❌ Inadequate public transport

The ATM situation is particularly concerning. The only identified ATMs are fee-based and located within licensed premises with poker machines.

For vulnerable people, many of whom may already be experiencing financial hardship or have additional support needs, requiring them to access cash in venues with poker machines creates a legitimate potential risk of financial harm and exposure to gambling.

These aren’t simply matters of convenience. They are basic services and infrastructure that people need to live safely, independently and with dignity.

🚶 Pedestrian safety

There are also serious concerns about the proposed pedestrian connection between Edwin Flack Avenue and Grazier Street.

The proposed route appears to push pedestrians onto a narrow, dark one-way street, before directing them towards a T-intersection where there is no footpath on the northern side.

That raises obvious questions about pedestrian safety and accessibility, particularly for residents with mobility issues, disabilities, children or other additional needs.

If we’re creating a community, people should have safe, accessible and properly designed pedestrian connections, not be funnelled onto a narrow roadway and into an intersection without a footpath.

🚒 Basement access and emergency vehicles

The proposed basement access from Grazier Street is another major concern.

Grazier Street is already an extraordinarily narrow, one-way street, yet it is proposed to provide access to the development’s basement.

This raises significant questions about how heavy vehicles and emergency services will safely access the site.

Most importantly, how will fire engines and other emergency vehicles navigate this street quickly and safely in an emergency?

What happens if the street is obstructed?

For a development of this scale, and one intended to house vulnerable residents, emergency access cannot be an afterthought. It needs to be properly demonstrated and addressed.

🏠 A roof is not the whole solution

We all understand there is a significant waiting list for social housing.

People need homes.

But putting a roof over someone’s head is not the only consideration.

The people who will live in this development are potentially some of the most vulnerable members of our community. They may have additional health, financial, mobility or support needs.

Homes NSW has a responsibility to consider the whole living environment, not simply the number of dwellings delivered.

Building a large community of vulnerable people in a location without adequate access to essential services, transport, healthcare, shopping and support risks setting people up to fail rather than giving them the foundations they need to succeed.

It’s like putting a village in the desert and then saying we’ve solved the housing problem because everyone has a roof.

❗ SOPA needs to be held to account

And we need to talk about SOPA and Master Plan 2050.

If the first major outcome residents see as part of Master Plan 2050 is a large, 100% social housing complex that could account for approximately 7.5% of Sydney Olympic Park’s current population, while being delivered well before any meaningful expansion of the essential services and infrastructure needed to support it, then SOPA should be ashamed of itself and held to account.

Master planning should be about creating a functional, connected and sustainable community, not simply delivering housing numbers and hoping the infrastructure catches up later.

How can it be considered responsible planning to potentially increase the population by such a significant proportion before there are adequate schools, healthcare, public transport, shopping, financial services, emergency services and safe pedestrian infrastructure?

And who ultimately gets let down by this approach?

It isn’t just the existing community.

It is the vulnerable people who will be placed into these homes and expected to navigate an environment that currently lacks many of the services they may depend on.

SOPA needs to explain how this aligns with the vision of Master Plan 2050, why housing is being prioritised ahead of supporting infrastructure, and what commitments are being made to ensure the necessary services actually exist when these residents move in.

Let’s be absolutely clear:

We are not opposed to social housing. We are opposed to poor planning.

We want social housing that is appropriate, safe, sustainable, properly supported and located where residents can actually access the services they need.

The plans may not be final yet, and that is precisely why now is the time to speak up.

Please continue to share this information, speak with your neighbours and make sure your concerns are formally raised.

This isn’t about saying no to vulnerable people.

It’s about making sure vulnerable people aren’t placed in a situation where the location itself makes their lives harder.

We need answers. We need proper planning. We need the infrastructure to come first, and we need SOPA and Homes NSW to be held accountable for getting this right.