Lord Mayor and CEO mislead public and councillors on affordable housing
May 28th, 2008The Sydney Lord Mayor and the City of Sydney CEO misled City Councillors and the public when they announced an affordable housing project in Glebe as a done deal on 29th April. The deception was uncovered at council on Monday 12th May when the Lord Mayor sought council endorsement of an MOU that she had signed with the Minister for Housing.
Councillor Chris Harris said that councillors were asked to endorse an MOU where the City and the NSW Government would work together to merely ‘assess the potential of developing new affordable housing units’. However on 29th April the Lord Mayor announced a partnership ‘committing the City of Sydney and the NSW Government to develop affordable housing on a 3.6 hectare site in Glebe’ and further that ‘ the City of Sydney is contributing a site worth about $30M in inner Sydney’.
So in fact we don’t actually have an affordable housing project. We are merely having a look at it with the state government. The Lord Mayor has misinformed the public that the project is a done deal and that the City has committed the land and the truth is that this is not the case.
