Vic Govt announces lease of public housing developments

The Victorian Government has announced plans to redevelop hundreds of homes in two of the state’s public housing developments into community housing.

Under the plan, the buildings will be leased from the Government to not-for-profit community housing organisations.

The Victorian Greens have criticised the move, accusing the government of privatising the state’s public housing.

Housing

There are three kinds of housing relevant to this story:

• Public housing is managed by state/ territory governments. It’s designed to give families and individuals on low incomes, or in emergency circumstances, low-cost rentals.
• Community housing performs the same service, but is managed by private not-for-profits. Like public housing, rent is capped at around 25 to 30% of the total household income.
• Affordable housing in Victoria is managed by private companies that set rent 10% lower than the typical market cost.

Demolitions

Melbourne’s inner city has 44 public housing high-rise apartment buildings, constructed in the 1960s and 70s to accommodate low-income families during a period of major population growth.

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As of 2024, around 10,000 people lived in these towers.

In September 2023, the Victorian Government announced plans to demolish all 44 buildings and redevelop the sites to meet “modern” building standards.

New plans

Under new plans announced on Tuesday, developments in Flemington and North Melbourne will be leased to community housing organisations for forty years.

These organisations are required to “finance, design, build, manage and maintain” 1,500 units where the towers were by the end of the decade.

These units will include a mix of community housing, affordable housing, and regular apartments.

Criticism

The Victorian Greens said the plan to privatise the public housing towers will
“tear communities apart and destroy the fabric of public housing in Victoria.”

Greens MP Samantha Ratnam said the announcement confirms what the party has “suspected for months”.

“The Labor State Government is outsourcing its responsibility to provide affordable housing at these sites and across the state to community housing providers and private profit-making developers,” Ratnam said.