Dozens of Sydney boarding houses forced to close down
The rental crisis has hit another form of accommodation, with dozens of boarding houses forced to close down across Sydney recently. Experts say it's partly because of rising property prices and a safety crackdown after a deadly fire.
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00:00 Elena Ang lived here for 22 years but says she was evicted with a week's notice.
00:08 Council ordered the previous owner of this Marrickville boarding house to make safety
00:12 improvements.
00:13 They decided to sell instead.
00:15 I had to troll the streets finding affordable accommodation.
00:20 The conditions in Menny are terrible.
00:23 This fire in Newtown last year killed three people.
00:26 It sparked a council crackdown on fire safety.
00:29 About half of the more than 500 boarding houses in the inner west are not even registered
00:34 with the government.
00:35 And we need a better system of oversight.
00:37 We can't wait for another person to be killed in a fire.
00:41 Since 2017 we've worked with 41 closures and 26 of those have been over the last 18 months.
00:47 So it's really rapid and we know that there are more coming.
00:53 This boarding house in Sydney's CBD is shutting down because of unspecified health reasons.
00:58 Over the past few weeks the almost 30 people who lived here have had to find somewhere
01:03 else to stay.
01:04 The building will eventually be redeveloped into a multi-storey hotel.
01:09 New buyers, new developers are buying those properties, renovating and of course the standards
01:15 are improving which is a good thing.
01:17 But along with that is the costs per room.
01:20 There's a push for the government to step in.
01:22 The idea that we're adding to the homelessness problem instead of stepping in to try and
01:26 hold these buildings in public hands is a completely outrageous situation.
01:30 The state government says building more social and affordable housing is one of its top priorities.
01:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]