No affordable housing in regional Victoria

Last month we saw another round of reports on how desperate things are for households searching for affordable, secure homes in regional Victoria.

Read this article.

There have been some increases in community housing numbers under the Big Housing Build in major regional cities, but they haven’t stemmed the crisis.

Under the Big Housing Build, dwellings that have been/are being built as “affordable” housing have rents set at 100 per cent of local market rents.

Just how that fits with delivering actual affordable housing is yet to be explained by the state government. Incomes are generally lower in regional Victoria compared to Melbourne, so those seeking a secure home to live in are in an impossible situation.

Supreme Court action by public housing residents

Despite attempts by Homes Victoria to have their human rights case thrown out, the Supreme Court is pressing on with asking them to provide all the details of how they arrived at a decision to demolish all the towers in Melbourne.

At the time of writing this column just how the agency will respond was not known.

At previous hearings, the agency’s lawyers had argued that the residents taking the action should pay all of Homes Victoria’s legal bills.

Fancy that, residents seeking to confirm their human rights were ignored in the decision making by not being consulted are being asked to pay to clarify those rights! 

Homes Victoria had been asked to table all relevant reports in state parliament a while back but declined, claiming government cabinet confidentiality. 

They did, though, provide a list of all documents that weren’t provided, and it can be reviewed at this link.

The list includes mention of yield reports, which can only mean assessments of what could be built in locations where demolitions were being considered. There also appears to be building condition reports used to justify demolitions.

The new Arden suburb

The state government has had redevelopment on this industrial and publicly held land in its sights for some time.

It has promised to deliver big on new homes for Melbourne’s burgeoning population, with 50,000 intended to be housed by 2051.

The government owns a significant amount of land around the new rail station for the suburb. It has called for submissions from a select group that includes developers and community housing providers involved with the past Public Housing Renewal Program and the Big Housing Build’s Ground Lease Model approach to demolishing and redeveloping public housing estates.

Go to this link.

Given the public ownership of the land, an opportunity to deliver on a large scale, housing that is publicly owned and not an opportunity for profit making by developers, is being passed up.

The precinct would be an ideal location to see a publicly owned residential builder in operation to the benefit of low to moderate income Melburnians over the next decade, not those who can afford the luxury dwellings the developers listed usually build.

Written with the assistance of the Save Public Housing Collective •