source : the age
New redevelopment plans for one of Melbourne’s biggest public housing towers provide no guarantee of supplying public homes, as the government prepares to introduce hundreds of market-rate rentals.
The state government briefed the City of Yarra on its plans for the tower at 139 Highett Street, Richmond, which currently has 220 public housing flats, on September 11.
The number of apartments is set to almost quadruple to 800 as part of the major demolition and development project, according to the council’s briefing. The height of the development or how many buildings will be included is unknown.
Of the new apartments, 150 have been earmarked for social housing – an umbrella term that refers to public and community housing.
Community housing differs from public housing in that properties are owned and managed by a not-for-profit company instead of the state. There is no confirmed public housing yet included in the new development.
The remaining 650 new homes are expected to operate under a build-to-rent model, an increasingly common format that often results in residents being charged a higher rate compared with median rents in the area. An unspecified portion of these rentals will be classed as affordable, the briefing said.
Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly said such a sharp transition away from public housing towards market-rate rentals would, in effect, lead to “the privatisation of that estate” and its surrounding community parkland.
“They’ve just gentrified the whole estate. There’s no way they can build 800 homes where 200 were without seeping onto the green open space,” Jolly said. “It’s horrific, really. I don’t know how it can be justified.”
The Highett Street tower is around the corner from the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room and within the wider North Richmond public housing precinct, which falls between Victoria Street and Bridge Road.
Homes Victoria staff told the council that home numbers across the precinct are expected to increase from 1000 to 3000.
The Highett Street tower and a group of walk-up houses in and around Elizabeth Street fall within the next development stage. Redevelopment timeframes for the remaining four Elizabeth Street towers are not yet known.
A state government spokesperson said decisions about the height, scale, mix or design of the Highett Street development were yet to be finalised.
They said demolition of the tower was expected to begin sometime next year. A separate application had been made for the construction of 187 new social homes at the nearby Elizabeth Street walk-ups, which are currently being demolished.
“Homes Victoria continues to engage with residents, stakeholders and the City of Yarra on the future of the precinct, including open space and community facilities,” the spokesperson said.
The Richmond rebuild is part of the state government’s controversial Big Housing Build, which was announced in 2020. Then-premier Daniel Andrews said at the time that the project would increase social housing supply by 10 per cent.
The major construction works, which encompass all 44 of Melbourne’s high-rise public towers, have since attracted legal challenges and criticism from the United Nations. The state ombudsman is investigating the relocation process faced by residents.
There is also growing concern from tenants and advocates about whether the project will be able to fully replenish the state’s public housing stock.
A different development in Holland Court, Flemington, is now in its construction phase. The total number of apartments will increase from 180 to 285, but only 50 of these have been earmarked as social homes. It is unclear what the split between public and community housing will be.
Greens MP for Richmond Gabrielle de Vietri said the Highett Street decision was another example of how the state government was “wiping out public housing” around Melbourne.
“As the local MP, I cannot stand by while Labor tears our community apart. I will fight this tooth and nail,” de Vietri said.
“Labor is clearly trying to hoodwink Victorians with this plan that’s been nothing more than a mass privatisation sham from day one.”
The Victorian Housing Register shows that close to 69,000 people are currently on the state’s waiting list for public and community housing. This is an increase of 1021 from March.
The figure includes new applications to the register and “transfer applications”, which represent public and community housing residents seeking to move due to a change in personal circumstances.
Yarra City Council will hold an extraordinary meeting next Tuesday at which councillors will reiterate their opposition to the Highett Street tower’s demolition and push for a pause to the project until after the November state election.
There will also be an emergency meeting with the council and North Richmond public housing residents on Monday to discuss the details of the development.
Jolly said the lack of consultation that had taken place with residents, the council and the wider community regarding the project was “just not good enough”.
“This hasn’t been well advertised. Definitely not in other languages … We’ve just been lumbered with this disaster,” he said.
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Gemma Grant is a city reporter at The Age. Contact her securely on Signal at gemmagrant.88Connect via email.
