Jeff lived with his mates. Then a developer bought his home, and he has no-one left

March 13, 2025 journo

What’s harder than saying a final goodbye to your family? Jeff Elliott thinks he knows: it’s not having the chance to shake hands that one last time, share a warm hug and wish them all the luck in the world as you say a tearful farewell.

As one of the last four men left standing in two boarding houses in Paddington, the site of a lost battle to stop a developer evicting all 32 men to convert the building into luxury housing, he finds it hard to believe his mates have well and truly gone.

Jeff at his home in Paddington.Credit: Sam Mooy

“They were family to me,” said Elliott, 59, who’s lived in one of the tiny studios of the building on Selwyn Street for 20 years. “I’ve now got nothing and no one left.

“We all supported each other; we had each other’s backs. They were great mates. And now most of them have gone and it’s happened so quickly some of us didn’t even have the time to say goodbye. They were here one minute and then …”

He looks around sadly at the old courtyard, full of empty chairs around a bare table, where once the men gathered every evening to eat, talk, laugh, share stories and form the kind of bonds they’d once believed were unbreakable.

The washing line has one vest hanging, left by a man who was rushed out when a vacant room came up in another boarding house across town. The BBQ where they used to roast a pig every third Sunday is empty. The rooms sit in various states of disarray – some residents had no time to pack their meagre possessions in the desperate quest to find another roof over their heads.

Most of Jeff’s mates have already left.Credit: Sam Mooy

Elliott is still looking for a new home. As a postie who goes to bed at 6pm to rise at 2am to get to work on time, he’s losing hope of finding something affordable nearby. While the State Government’s Homes NSW have worked tirelessly to find the men alternative homes, their resources have been stretched to breaking point.

Their neighbours in the affluent streets nearby are heartbroken that their long fight to keep the men in their homes has ended in failure, and see this as a graphic snapshot of the underbelly of the housing crisis.

“It’s been awful,” said neighbour Michael Mannix. “One resident spent five days in ICU because of respiratory problems and coronary failure that we think was caused by the stress. Another man who lived here for 45 years and brought his son up here was inconsolable.

“And there’s another who’s now in social housing in Daceyville who just can’t cope with living on his own after 35 years of communal living. Isolation is a killer. He catches buses back into the area every day, and often back to the boarding house, because he’s so lost.”

The determined neighbours are still trying to keep the boarding house intact for affordable housing and stop the developer building four new houses.

The next hearing in the Land and Environment Court of NSW, where the developer, LFD Developments, is seeking to overturn the City of Sydney’s rejection of their planning application, is set for May 8. LFD didn’t respond to this masthead’s requests for comment.

Up to 30 neighbours created an outreach project to call the men, visit them, deliver food, help them furnish their new places, connect electricity, find doctors and tap into other support networks.

“We want them to know they’re not forgotten and they’re still cherished and valued,” said Mannix. “They were an intrinsic part of our community, and we miss them.”

The community has rallied around the Paddington boarding houses.Credit: Sam Mooy

Neighbour Will Mrongovius is another of the organisers. “So many of these men are really vulnerable and that’s what really hurts,” he said.

“We do miss them. They were a community within a community. They helped us and we helped them. The tragic thing is that boarding houses are part of the solution for the shortage of affordable housing, but too many look at building new instead of preserving what we already have.”

Many boarding houses have been lost over the last 12 months alone, says Elaine Macnish, chief executive of the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, which has 2500 people asking for help every year, 80 per cent of whom are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

She says a number of boarding houses are evicting long-term tenants, refurbishing the buildings and putting them back on the market with higher rents for younger people.

“A lot of boarding houses might have standards that are below par, but they still play a really, really crucial role in providing affordable housing. Some people don’t want to be in social housing. They want to try to stand on their own two feet, and it’s an important option, and now they’re being increasingly lost,” she said.

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