Public housing this federal election

Australian Greens and Socialist candidates supported public housing becoming central to solving very low to moderate income households’ housing affordability crisis.

Labor and the Coalition made different commitments, but both focused on winning over prospective first homeowner voters. Both left the private investor unchallenged as the driver of housing unaffordability. The illusion that the private for-profit market will deliver more affordable housing has been sustained by both major parties.

Update on public housing demolitions

There has been no public announcement on plans to demolish Holmes St, Northcote but that isn’t stopping Homes Victoria from causing great concern to residents, who have been told they can move to the Housing First dwellings that have been built where the Walker St public housing estate once stood. That estate could have been renovated and had ground space to build more public housing.

The Walker St estate was included in the failed Public Housing Renewal Program that saw only a handful of estate redevelopment offers taken up by consortia of community housing providers and private developers. An underlying theme promoted by the Andrews government was that a 30 per cent community housing and 70 per cent private ownership redevelopment would enable public housing tenants to be in a social mix that would be an incentive to improve their lives. Patronising and offensive! Housing First dwellings are in a single block close to High St and near the bridge crossing Merri Creek.

It will have been eight years from the time of the announcement of demolition to completion of the redevelopment this year. Construction had to wait until MAB had enough off-the-plan sales to guarantee them the profit they were seeking. Homes Victoria also guaranteed that the community housing dwellings would be paid for at full construction costs, plus a “builder’s margin” aka profit.

A motion moved by Victorian Greens councillors at Darebin Council to oppose the demolition of Holmes St was defeated by all Labor councillors. It appears as though despite rumblings from time to time, all Labor members have fallen into line behind the mission to destroy public housing provision in Victoria.

What has happened at Holmes St is another indication of the deception of the state Labor government over the delivery of a mere 10 per cent gain in “social” housing over demolished public housing. It is using redeveloped estates to temporarily accommodate public housing tenants. All up it is a sham.

Retain, repair and reinvest (RRR)

Overturning the current demolition mission of the Victorian Labor government in favour of an RRR model will actually deliver more public housing at less cost.

RMIT Design Studio’s architectural and landscaping masters' degree students are working on ideas to refurbish and expand public housing at the Barkly St estate in Brunswick, including a 20-year transformation of the estate. Their work will be completed towards the end of this year, in time for saving that estate from being demolished.

More information is available from the brilliant OFFICE team at office.org.au

Prepared with the assistance of the Save Public Housing Collective •