THE Andrews government is pitching the redevelopment of all 44 of Melbourne’s public housing towers as the country’s biggest ever urban renewal project, despite concerns from many about the upheaval of residents amidst an ongoing housing crisis.
The state government will retire and redevelop the 44 ageing high-rise public housing estates that house around 10,000 people and replace them with social housing for an estimated 30,000 people.
With the government also stating that every tenant living across the 44 towers has been promised a home while the redevelopment rolls out.
Though just 11,000 of these 30,000 residents are set to be public tenants, with about the remaining 19,000 to be a mixture of social and market housing.
“Victoria already has the biggest social and affordable housing agenda of all Australian states and territories,” said Colin Brooks, minister for housing.
“But when it comes to the dignity and security of a home for every Victorian, there’s always more to do – and we’re getting on with it.”
According to the government, the buildings are reaching the end of their lifecycle and a no longer fit for modern living, especially for young families and the disabled.
In their current state, the towers no longer meet many of Victoria’s Better Apartment Design Standards and fail against metrics for noise, sustainability, waste and recycling, bedroom area dimensions, room depth, ventilation, private open space, accessibility and minimum amenity.
Many are calling for the government to retrofit the buildings using methods that wouldn’t put people out of secure housing for such an extend period of time.
This year, students at Melbourne University’s Melbourne School of design pitched ideas for the city’s public housing towers, keeping in mind the prefabricated construction which doesn’t allow for alteration of walls or any further weight loaded onto them.
Instead, the tower’s single-sided corridor design could present the opportunity to add new structures to the corridor sides of the towers, built from the ground up and providing additional bracing to the existing towers rather than adding any load to them.
Significantly, extending and refurbishing the towers would have a much less invasive impact on residents and a far lower environmental impact than demolition.
While according to Homes Victoria, if they undertook only critical capital repairs and maintenance to the towers, it would cost an estimated $2.3 billion over the next 20 years or around $55 million per tower.
The government’s works on the towers are set to begin with two in Flemington, one in North Melbourne and the two Carlton red brick towers.
In Flemington and North Melbourne, the government will replace 503 dwellings with 1,800 new homes.
While in Carlton, they will replace 196 dwellings with 231 homes, an increase of 18%, with the redevelopment overall increasing social homes across the sites by around 10%.
It is also currently unclear what portion of this housing would remain public, rather than under the umbrella term of “social housing”, which could mean either public or community housing.
With public housing generally defined as dwellings managed by the government with rent capped at 25% of your income, regardless of your income and can include welfare payments.
While a community housing model is dwelling managed either owned or managed by a not-for-profit or owned by private property developers, with rets capped at 30% of your income plus Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA).
Meanwhile, there are currently around 58,000 households on Victoria’s public housing waiting list. With the Andrews government also noting around 9,373 people already living in social housing have applied for a transfer to a new property.
“This is Australia’s biggest ever urban renewal project – and it’ll boost social housing by at least 10 per cent across these 44 sites,” said Daniel Andrews, premier.
“It’s a massive agenda to reimagine these spaces and rebuild them into the modern, accessible, comfortable homes Victorians expect – and deserve.”
On the other hand, the Council to Homeless Persons believes last week’s Housing Statement failed to adequately commit to social housing at the scale needed across the state.
“The state government appears to have missed a critical opportunity to tackle the most serious housing crisis in living memory. Behind the big headline numbers, there’s crumbs for social housing,” said Deborah Di Natale, CEO at the council.
“We need at least 60,000 new public and community homes to be built in Victoria over a decade. Unfortunately there’s nothing like that in these announcements.”
Di Natale added that without a major increase in social housing at this scale, homelessness will continue to rise.
While Victoria has seen a with a 24% overall increase in homelessness over the last five years, with one in two areas experiencing growth of more than 20%.
With the state seeing a 5.3% increase in the use of homelessness services between December and March, according to Homelessness Australia.
