When
to
Where
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia
Why
Australia is in the worst housing crisis in its history. The effects of this are felt mainly and most severely by low and moderate-income households and the most vulnerable in society including First Nations people, asylum seekers, disabled people and the poor.
The State of Victoria has the lowest level of public and community housing in Australia, at 2.8 percent. Over 58,000 households remain on the state public housing waiting list; many more remain in over-priced substandard private rental accommodation.
In this worsening situation, the State government plans to demolish Melbourne’s 44 public housing towers which are made up of 6,660 homes.
No evaluations of the structural conditions of the buildings have been released to justify this far-reaching decision and the opaque process that justifies it.
The plan is both an attack on the residents and the last fig leaf of democracy.
In this crisis, housing and social justice advocates and concerned people in general are joining up to secure the protection and growth of public housing in Victoria.
Expert proposals to retrofit the towers with minimal disruption to residents have been ignored.
The demolitions will displace more than 10,000 people with no relocation plans other than to be pushed to the front of the waiting list, meaning those already on the list will have to wait longer.
Meanwhile, other tracts of public land deemed surplus to government requirements are being sold to private companies for market-rate residential development.
This impoverished policy landscape in Victoria cannot be allowed to continue.
Join us and help save public housing.
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