Multiple points of resistance: an overview of opposition to social housing constructed under the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan in New South Wales

In response to the Global Financial Crisis of 2009 the Federal Government introduced the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan (NBESP) to halt possible descent into a national recession. The NBESP mobilised a number of economic triggers, such as family and business payments. However, the bulk of the funds were allocated to large capital works programs focused on building educational infrastructure and new social housing. This paper explores the planning and delivery of the Social Housing Initiative (SHI) in New South Wales. The SHI rests at the centre of a series of complex and competing objectives of the Federal government responding to global economic conditions, State governments operating within timeline and budget constraints established by the Federal government, and councils and residents responding to local contexts. Global economic conditions acted as the catalyst for the most significant expenditure on social housing in decades. Social housing advocates and academics alike supported new construction and positioned the development program as essential to a system which had long been neglected. However, support was far from universal as a series of localised conflicts arose around the planning and implementation of the SHI. Using a series controversial development sites, this paper traces community and council concerns over social housing provided under the NBESP. These positions are contrasted by state government employees charged with implementing the program. The paper is ambitious in scope and provides an overview of all major areas of local concern. What is apparent is that communities opposed to social housing development mobilised complex points and modes of resistances which extend beyond NIMBYism and anti-social housing rhetoric (although these are certainly there). This resistance encompass concerns around planning processes, urban design, characteristics of place, fears of future residents and role of local politicians. All of these issues are covered here.