Scores of public housing tenants are saying no to moving into buildings the state government plans to replaceGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWhen Ella* was told that the Melbourne public housing tower she lived in was being demolished, she didn’t imagine she’d have to move into another one facing the same fate.But about a year after the Victorian government announced that her building would be among the first to be torn down as part of a plan to rebuild the state’s 44 public housing towers, she received a letter asking her to do just that.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…Scores of public housing tenants are saying no to moving into buildings the state government plans to replaceGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWhen Ella* was told that the Melbourne public housing tower she lived in was being demolished, she didn’t imagine she’d have to move into another one facing the same fate.But about a year after the Victorian government announced that her building would be among the first to be torn down as part of a plan to rebuild the state’s 44 public housing towers, she received a letter asking her to do just that.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…
When Ella* was told that the Melbourne public housing tower she lived in was being demolished, she didn’t imagine she’d have to move into another one facing the same fate.
But about a year after the Victorian government announced that her building would be among the first to be torn down as part of a plan to rebuild the state’s 44 public housing towers, she received a letter asking her to do just that.
“It was a big shock,” says the single mother of two, speaking through a translator to Guardian Australia.
Ella says she was given two options: move 40 minutes away, uprooting her family’s lives, or to a neighbouring Flemington tower, where she could stay close to her part-time job, her child’s school and the local African diaspora community – though with no indication of how long she could remain.
While Ella chose to accept the Flemington apartment, the uncertainty tenants feel about moving into buildings that could soon be demolished could explain why many others are rejecting such offers.
According to responses to questions on notice given to parliament’s public accounts and estimates committee by the Department of Fairness, Families and Housing last month, almost half of all public housing offers made for 10 towers in Fitzroy, North Melbourne and Richmond have been turned down.
Of 304 offers made in 2023-24, 151 were declined, including the majority at 90 Brunswick Street and at 95 Napier Street in Fitzroy. The remaining 153 were accepted.
Although all 10 towers will eventually be demolished, only one – 139 Highett Street in Richmond – has a rough timeline, with works to be completed by 2032.
Ella says not knowing how long she can stay in her new apartment makes it hard to feel settled.
“It’s really quite worrying,” she says. “It is in the back of my mind that this is not going to be long-term accommodation, we are not in charge of the plans.
“Moving from one house to another is a huge challenge, especially when you’re a single mother. No one wants to have to move again.”
The public housing offers data was requested by the Greens, whose housing spokesperson, Gabrielle de Vietri, says the figures raise questions about the government’s approach to redevelopment.
“Why would you move into a home that you know could be demolished at any moment?” she says.
“It also begs the question of whether Labor is intentionally offering unsuitable homes to people to make it easier to steamroll ahead with their plan to demolish the towers.
“People waiting for public housing wouldn’t turn down an affordable home in places like Fitzroy for no reason.”
‘Displacement and dislocation’
According to the department’s response, limited accessibility, concerns about location, lack of private green space and the social stigma associated with living in the towers were reasons cited by tenants who declined to move into the towers.
It said they had a preference for “modern, accessible and energy-efficient homes” rather than the older buildings.
During committee hearings, the chief executive of Homes Victoria, Simon Newport, said it had become difficult to fill vacancies in the towers. He said it was taking an average of 60 days to fill them, well above the 28-day target.
“It is not uncommon for us to have multiple offers,” Newport said. “And without trying to shock the committee too much, we have had an instance where we have had to make over 25 offers on some properties in the towers.”
Nadia Morales is chief executive of Inner Melbourne Community Legal, a law firm representing tenants of the first three occupied towers to be demolished in a class action against the state government.
She says several of the firm’s clients have been contacted by Homes Victoria, asking them to move to other high-rise towers or to community housing – operated by non-profits – despite their preference of remaining in state-owned public housing.
If tenants decline two offers, Morales says, they are removed from the priority list and can wait years for another offer.
“They’re feeling pressure to take up offers, even in circumstances where the accommodation isn’t suitable to their needs, because there’s simply a lack of public housing and they don’t know what the next offer could look like,” she says.
As of September 2024 there were 53,554 households on Victoria’s waitlist for public and community housing, including more than 29,000 on the priority list.
The average wait time in 2023-24 was 19.8 months for people with priority access, 88% longer than the Victorian government’s target of 10.5 months.
“A number of our clients are also being really forcefully encouraged to take up community housing properties in the absence of there being sufficient public housing stock, knowing that they will have an inferior set of rights, and that’s really concerning for them, their families and their futures,” Morales says.
The approach has caused the “displacement and dislocation” of entire communities who have lived in the area for generations, Morales said.
The opposition’s housing spokesperson, Richard Riordan, says the government should have taken a staged approach to the redevelopment of each site.
“I don’t understand why, on most of these sites, there couldn’t be a plan to build a new tower first, so people could move in and stay within their communities, and then either refurbish or demolish the existing ones – if they’re in as bad a condition as they government says they are,” the Liberal MP says.
A Victorian government spokesperson says the towers are “nearing the end of their useful life”, which is why they are being replaced by “with modern, accessible and energy efficient apartments”.
“While the Greens and Liberal party try to block homes from getting built, and spread misinformation and fear, we’re investing $6.3bn to build thousands more social homes across Victoria.”
As of 10 January, 74% of residents in the first towers slated for redevelopment have been moved or matched into a new home, with more than half of the buildings now vacant.
The government says two in every three relocating renters have moved into homes managed by a community housing provider and are supported throughout the process.
The redevelopment of each tower is expected to take between six and eight years – with all the work to be completed by 2051.
Ella says while she sometimes feels nervous living high in her new building, she believes the apartment is in good condition. But she believes the government “must know” of a problem with the tower that she is unaware of.
“If they could fix it without demolishing, they should,” she says, calling for clarity about long-term plans for each site.
“They should tell us when it is going to happen, how long each building is going to take, where the tenants are going to be temporarily and make sure the tenants are going to come back to the properties.”
*Name has been changed