By Rachael Dexter and Cara Waters
Public housing towers to be demolished in Melbourne’s inner north will be replaced by developments with nearly 1000 more apartments but no public housing, the state government has announced.
The Allan government sent out newsletters to tenants in North Melbourne and Flemington on Tuesday morning, shortly before issuing a media release announcing the blueprint for what will replace three towers now being vacated.
Victorian Public Tenants Association chief executive Katelyn Butterss says the lack of public housing is a major blow.Credit: Paul Jeffers
The Racecourse Road Flemington site, which includes 120 Racecourse Road (with 180 public units) and 12 Holland Court (also with 180 public units) will be demolished to make way for 400 community housing rental units and 300 so-called affordable private rental units.
Community housing properties are owned, developed and maintained by not-for-profit organisations, rather than the state.
“Affordable” housing is defined in Victoria as being 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. These properties will be developed, owned and maintained by a private building consortium as a corporate landlord.
Nearby 33 Alfred Street in North Melbourne, which currently has 143 public housing units, will be replaced by 300 community apartments and 500 private units (an undetermined mix of private and “affordable”).
The government has committed to both sites being completed within six years and giving current residents a right to return. The developments will return to state ownership after 40 years.
Victorian Public Tenants Association chief executive Katelyn Butterss said the lack of public housing was a major blow, given the most vulnerable people tend to live in public housing as community providers have the flexibility to choose their tenants.
“If we’re not building back any public housing at North Melbourne and Flemington, that opens the door to not building back public housing at the other high-rise sites,” she said.
“That could have the overall effect of pushing our very valuable public housing stock, the stock that’s most suited to people who have recently experienced homelessness and who have the lowest incomes, out to regional areas and fringe suburbs.”
Community housing is attractive to private investors, including super funds, as it is exempt from GST, and tenants are eligible for Commonwealth rent assistance.
Private consortium Building Communities, which recently completed redevelopments of low-rise housing at the Flemington estate, has had its contract expanded to include two high-rise towers. A tender for the North Melbourne site opens later this week.
“Increasing the volume of new social housing on these sites by 39 per cent will give more Victorians the modern, energy-efficient, accessible, safe and secure homes they deserve,” Housing Minister Harriet Shing said.
Barry Berih, an Alfred Street resident and lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against the government over its demolition plans, said it was disappointing residents had not been told in person of the latest blueprint.
“They never consult the community first. We always hear at the last minute,” he said.
Barry Berih leads public housing tenants outside the Supreme Court in Melbourne in October.Credit: Jason South
Internal Labor advocacy group Labor for Housing expressed disappointment at the absence of traditional public housing, but convener Julijana Todorovic said she held out hope for the remaining high-rise redevelopments, noting two red-brick towers in Carlton were being rebuilt as 100 per cent traditional public housing.
“We expect that the government will ensure that it acts [in accordance] with Victorian Labor’s resolution of the 2024 state conference and that there will be no net loss of public housing across the 44 sites,” she said.
“In a housing crisis, the state cannot abrogate its obligation to provide for Victorians who need it most.“
Opposition planning and housing spokesman Richard Riordan took issue with the granting of the Flemington Towers to consortium Building Communities without an open tender, while Greens housing spokeswoman Gabrielle de Vietri said the government was “handballing people’s lives and the housing crisis to a private consortium”.
Victoria has the nation’s lowest level of social housing as a proportion of overall housing stock. Public housing has slumped from a high of almost 4 per cent in 1994 to a low of about 2.4 per cent. The figure is about 2.9 per cent when community housing is included.
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