A newborn baby has been found dead by a riverbank in a regional NSW city, with another infant taken to hospital in a critical condition.
Emergency services were called on Saturday afternoon to Cadell Place, Wagga Wagga, which runs along the Murrumbidgee River.
A 37-year-old woman and two infants were found at the scene. One of the babies was dead. The surviving infant was taken to hospital in a critical condition along with the woman.
This masthead understands she had just given birth. Local media reported the baby was found inside a tent.
A report will be prepared for the coroner but police believe there are no suspicious circumstances.
Local councillor Richard Foley says the “terrible tragedy” is a direct and predictable result of systemic failure to address homelessness and housing.
Foley told this masthead people have always lived down by the river.
“But it’s now increasing and getting much, much worse,” he said.
Broader economic conditions, razor-thin rental vacancies and a lack of public housing are driving the increase, he said.
“It’s ridiculous and people have nowhere to go,” he said.
“Some members of the community just want us to go in there and remove them … but that’s not going to solve anything, it’s only going to push the problem somewhere else.”
Foley puts it down primarily to a lack of public housing, which is a state government issue.
“But I believe as a council we’ve got a moral duty to at least do everything we can to fight for the right outcomes in the community.
“They say there’s action coming, but they keep telling us that.”
New construction will only replace housing that had been demolished, Foley said.
Wagga Wagga is a priority area for “renewal and delivery of new social housing”, the NSW government says.
Homes NSW is working with the Aboriginal Housing Office, the local council and community housing providers on redeveloping the Tolland estate in the city’s south.
According to the state government agency about 3 per cent (2047 people) live in Wagga’s 1176 social housing dwellings, compared to 2.4 per cent across regional NSW and 0.8 per cent of the entire state.
Most of the agency’s housing stock was built in the 1960s and 1970s. The cost of maintaining them is increasing, and the properties are becoming less and less suitable for the people living in them, the agency says.
The first stage of the renewal project will soon award a contract to demolish roads and infrastructure and create 24 residential lots. It’s hoped the project will deliver 490 new homes in the next decade.
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Jack Gramenz is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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