Public housing resident stories
The City of Melbourne has provided me with the resources to record podcasts and videos of residents living with the threat of eviction under the state government’s plans to demolish all 44 high-rise public housing buildings across metropolitan Melbourne.
3CR has also committed resources to the project and will broadcast their stories.
Thousands of residents are living in fear, not knowing what will happen to them under the government’s plan.
Many are vision impaired, aged and live with disabilities. Their current neighbourhoods are familiar to them. They have networks of friends and support services that will be shattered with eviction. Some have already been relocated from other public housing demolitions and are refusing to move again.
Victorian Supreme Court action and the Parliamentary inquiry
Residents are pressing on with their class action on the abuse of their human rights by not being consulted prior to the government’s decision. Go to Inner Melbourne Community Legal’s website at imcl.org.au/class-action. You can attend hearings if you want to.
The Court is now considering whether to force Homes Victoria to release all the internal documents that supported the demolition decision.
Parliament’s Legislative Council (LC) has been refused the documents. Only the titles of the documents have been made public. They include building status reports and estimates of the increase in dwellings each redevelopment could deliver.
The government has mocked the LC with this refusal. The LC is an essential part of democratic, open government as a house of review of government decisions.
In response, LC is pressing on with its own inquiry.
Go to this link: parliament.vic.gov.au/publichousingtowers.
Its first information session will be on Monday, February 17, 4pm to 6pm at the Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston St, Carlton.
Heritage status of towers and who shrunk their accommodation capacity?
Last year Homes Victoria took the step of seeking a heritage exclusion order for the two empty towers at Elgin and Nicholson streets in Carlton. This happened in response to someone who grew up in one of the towers saying he would pursue a preservation order.
An exclusion was secured but the decision revealed very interesting facts, including the original accommodation capacity of the original 47 towers – three have been demolished.
The report says that when completed, they could accommodate 5439 families, 2391 individuals or around 24,000 people (pages 13,14; Victorian Heritage Executive Director Report, RX1011, September 5, 2024).
Taking out the numbers involved in the three already demolished towers, we are talking about homes for up to 22,000 adults and children!
When the demolition decision was announced it was stated that there were only 10,000 residents and that redevelopment would deliver housing for 30,000 of which two thirds would live in full market rent and fake affordable – 90 per cent of market rent housing.
The discrepancy is extraordinary and shows very clearly that a retain, repair and reinvest plan for the towers would deliver more public housing at less cost than community housing providers managing dwellings for just 11,000 residents under the government’s plan.
Prepared with the assistance of the Save Public Housing Collective. •

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