The Victorian Greens have slammed the Labor Government following their confirmation that there will be no public housing rebuilt at Flemington and North Melbourne as they steamroll ahead with their plan to demolish the public housing towers at the sites.
Today Labor has finally conceded that they have no intention to build any public homes at the sites and will be handing over all responsibility for the Flemington development to a private consortium, as well as also putting a call out to companies interested in developing North Melbourne.
The plan will see Labor hand over the publicly owned land to a private consortium to be responsible for the entire design, construction and management, meaning that the "social" units will be converted to privately-owned community housing.
The majority of housing built across the two sites will be private expensive apartments, including 300 units of so-called "affordable housing." Not a single unit at the new development will be public housing.
Community housing is more expensive than public housing and community housing residents do not have the same rights. For example, public housing tenants have rent capped at 25% of household income and rights to a life-long lease, whereas community housing tenants have to renew every 3 years, and can pay upward of 30% of their income.
"Affordable" housing has no strict definition and has been found to be leased at higher than market rent even in some government managed properties.
The Victorian Greens say that this confirms Labor's total retreat from public housing as Victoria already has the least, and spends the least, on public housing in comparison to the rest of the country. It comes after Labor has repeatedly dodged questions from the Greens and the media about whether they can confirm a single public home will be built at the tower sites.
As stated by the Victorian Greens spokesperson for Public and Affordable Housing, Gabrielle de Vietri:
"This announcement confirms our fears that Labor is washing their hands of public housing in Victoria.
"Labor is handballing people's lives and the housing crisis to a private consortium.
"We're in a housing crisis where we should be building more public housing on public land, but instead Labor's handing over our public land and demolishing the public housing we already have."
