Residents of Melbourne’s public housing towers have lost their legal bid to halt demolition of their homes, and the state government will pursue the tenant leading the class action to pay its legal costs.
The Supreme Court has dismissed a case that involved 479 households from three public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne – the first three of the 44 towers slated for demolition under a plan announced in late 2023 by then premier Daniel Andrews.
The view from one of North Melbourne’s public housing towers.Credit: Scott McNaughton
Dozens of public housing tenants gathered to hear the verdict on Friday morning, and some vowed to stay in their homes despite the ruling and would resist relocation or eviction.
The publicly owned sites will be razed, leased to private companies for 40 years and rebuilt with 1000 more rental units than are currently there – but no traditional public housing will be rebuilt.
Instead, the sites will host a mix of community housing – properties aimed at people on the housing waiting list that are owned, developed and maintained by not-for-profit organisations rather than the state; “affordable” rentals that will be “at least 10 per cent below the area’s market rent and no more than 30 per cent of the median income of metropolitan Melbourne”; and market-rate rentals.
The land and buildings are to be handed back to the state in four decades.
The tenants’ lawsuit was technically complex and argued the government failed to properly consider residents’ human rights when it decided to demolish the towers, and that other alternatives – including retrofitting the towers – were not considered. The 10,000 public housing tenants who live in the 44 towers first heard about the plan when Andrews announced it at a press conference in September 2023.
In handing down the judgment on Friday, Justice Melinda Richards ruled that Homes Victoria, the government agency that manages Victoria’s public housing and its tenants, did not legally need to hear from tenants before making the decision.
She also ruled there was “no realistic possibility” that hearing from the tenants would have changed Homes Victoria’s assessment “that residents must be relocated in order to address the many problems with the towers, whether the towers were redeveloped or retrofitted”.
She also ruled that while the tenants’ human rights were impacted by the decision – it was justified.
“Homes Victoria must do something to address the ongoing deterioration of the towers,” she said. “While the implementation of the decision has diminished [tenants’] security of tenure and will disperse their community, the alternative option of retrofitting the towers would have a similar effect.
“In addition the redevelopment program will substantially increase the amount of housing on the site to the benefit of a much wider group than the current renters in the towers.”
Public housing advocates say more public housing can be built on the large estates without displacing their residents and have produced costings they say show an in-fill and refurbishment plan would be a much cheaper and less disruptive alternative to the government’s plans.
Public housing tenants gather outside the Supreme Court on Friday morning.Credit: Rachael Dexter
Under the current plan, tenants will remain in towers on sites where towers are redeveloped one by one.
Dozens of tower residents gathered in the court to hear the verdict, and spoke outside afterwards.
“They accept the judge’s decision, but they disagree with her. They don’t want to move, and they’re not going to move, and then they’re going to keep fighting,” said R-Coo Tran, a former tenant of the Richmond towers and convener of the group 44 Flats United, which represents current and former residents of the 44 high-rise public housing towers across the city.
Lead plaintiff Barry Berih, from the public housing site at 33 Alfred Street in North Melbourne, thanked his lawyers and neighbours, who were “standing by me the whole, the whole way through”.
Inner Melbourne Legal Centre barrister Louisa Bassini said her team would look for avenues to appeal.
Richmond Greens MP and housing spokeswoman Gabrielle De Vietri was in court for the verdict and told residents her party would help them resist eviction.
“What they didn’t plan for was the resistance of the public housing residents, who are coming together like never before, to stand up and resist being evicted.” she said.
She said it was “absolutely outrageous” that the state was pursuing Berrih for costs, and repeated a consistent description that the redevelopment plan was a form of “privatisation” – a charge denied by the Victorian government.
A parliamentary inquiry into the plan, pushed by the Greens and Liberals, is under way and will conduct public hearings in June.
Housing Minister Harriet Shing said: “We don’t underestimate the impact of that change as we move to develop those tower sites, and Homes Victoria is working really carefully with residents to understand the things that are most important to them in the course of relocations.”
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