Who speaks for the poor?

Abstract There is in Australia a chronic shortage of decent housing affordable to the income poor. This shortage is exacerbated by increasingly vociferous opposition from groups of residents to proposals for low‐income housing development. The move towards a more inclusionary form of planning in the 1990s, based on an expansion of public participation strategies, often leaves planners torn between satisfying the demands of the vociferous few and a professional desire for ‘balanced’ development which considers a broader, if nebulous, ‘public good’. In urban consolidation debates, far more is heard from articulate middle class NIMBYs who fear that provision of ‘affordable’ housing will allow people of different (i.e. inferior) backgrounds to move into their areas, than from the lower‐income groups who want to realize their assets through subdivision of their property or who simply want the opportunity to afford somewhere to live. However inclusionary the planning process seeks to be, the articulate classes will become more actively and vociferously involved than others in attempting to shape discussion and outcomes. Is anyone able to speak for the poor or ensure their voices are heard?