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Public housing residents accuse the state government of pushing poor people out of Melbourne’s inner-suburbs, and vow not to leave their homes in protest against plans to demolish and rebuild ageing towers around the city.
“You can bury me under this building, but I’m not moving out,” Wellington Street tower resident Valentyna Frolova told a rally at Collingwood’s public housing complex on Saturday.
Valentyna Frolova, from the Wellington Street flats.Credit: Jason South
In its housing statement last month, the Victorian Labor government announced all 44 public housing towers in Melbourne would be razed and rebuilt to fit three times as many residents.
But of the 30,000 people who would live at the estates by 2051, 11,000 would be in social housing – 1000 more than occupy the towers now. The remainder would be private apartments, with an unspecified number of affordable housing tenants.
There were 55,822 households on the social housing waiting list in the June quarter.
About 150 people gathered at the Collingwood housing estate to protest against the announcement, and characterised the plans as privatisation by stealth and an abandonment of vulnerable people.
“They look at us like we’re small fishes, and we can’t say nothing, and we can’t do nothing. But as long as we try that’s all that counts,” Frolova said.
Public housing resident Aisha Abdi addresses the rally on Saturday.Credit: Jason South
All tenants will be offered alternative housing during the redevelopment.
But resident Aisha Abdi was worried about elderly residents and that schooling would be disrupted for children who moved outside their communities.
“It was a shock to everybody. People were saying, ‘Where are we going to? Where are we going to?’ We’re staying here. We’re staying in this public housing. That’s it.”
A resident in the Carlton public housing estate, Katherine Ceballos, said the government never asked how to improve the standards of the towers, where residents had forged strong communities.
“You want to dump us in the suburbs, further away the better,” said Ceballos.
“These are not just buildings made of concrete,” she said. “A housing estate is more than just what people see from the shell. It’s life and it’s our life.”
Federal Greens leader Adam Bandt, the member for Melbourne, said governments were giving up on public housing and increasingly turning to non-profit community groups to provide housing.
Federal Greens leader Adam Bandt.Credit: Jason South
The state government is yet to confirm whether the social housing for 11,000 residents at the rebuilt estates would be public housing, meaning they would government run with rent at 25 per cent of household income, or community housing with rent at 25-30 per cent of income.
Bandt said governments had not built public housing to keep up with population growth. “There are no answers to these questions, and the government doesn’t have the dignity to come down and talk to the residents collectively and say, let’s work out a plan together,” he said.
State Richmond MP and Greens renters’ rights spokeswoman Gabrielle de Vietri, Greens Yarra councillor and Fitzroy public housing resident Anab Mohamud, and independent socialist Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly were among those to address the rally.
Aboriginal activist Robbie Thorpe, a Gunai man, said Aboriginal people had been homeless since colonisation and questioned why there was poverty in a wealthy country.
Robbie Thorpe addresses the rally on Saturday.Credit: Jason South
The Victorian Greens this month threatened to block Victorian Labor’s taxes on vacant land and short-stay properties in parliament’s upper house unless the government made concessions on its housing statement.
Premier Jacinta Allan on Thursday said the government was focused on building well-connected homes to increase the supply of both private, social and affordable homes.
“That is why, as part of the housing statement, we are looking at the largest urban renewal project in the country around the redevelopment of the 44 tower housing sites,” Allan said. “Those sites are all close to jobs, close to public transport, close to services, close to schools.
“We’re not interested in having a fight or argument with the Greens. We’re just wanting to work collaboratively to get more homes built.”
Some residents looked forward to newer amenities, though many believe the towers could be refurbished at a lower cost without displacing communities.
Then-premier Daniel Andrews last month said it would have cost $2.3 billion over 20 years, or $55 million per tower, just to maintain the buildings without retrofitting them.
Homes Victoria chief executive Simon Newport last week told a parliamentary inquiry the towers had insurmountable design issues.
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