The State Government has announced that over 1,100 Public Housing homes set for redevelopment.
It has been announced that walk-up flats at Bangs St Prahran is one of the redevelopment sites.
Other sites are in Brunswick, North Melbourne, Heidelberg West, Clifton Hill, Brighton, Hawthorn, Northcote and Ascot Vale.
We will share further details on the sites as they come to hand.
The VPTA supports the redevelopment of outdated, dilapidated and obsolete walk-up flats.
We recognised that there is an urgent need to replace the walk-up public housing stock with modern and well-designed homes for public housing tenants.
Some of the issues that tenants raise with us are:
- Significant problems with plumbing. The aging plumbing infrastructure on many of the estates is failing, leading to ongoing issues.
- Mould. The concrete panel walk-ups in particular suffer from poor air circulation which encourages mould.
- Poor thermal performance. The concrete panel walk-ups are notoriously hot in summer and cold in winter.
- Poor access. Many tenants on the higher levels have difficulty navigating the stairs. Older tenants, tenants with health problems and tenants with small babies are heavily impacted.
We recognise that doing nothing is simply not an option.
In public housing we have endured two decades of sustained underinvestment, and we hope that today marks a reversal in the way governments invest in public housing.
We are strongly of the view that tenants who pay rent in older, crumbling walk-up flats are not getting value for money. Nor are the walk-up flats good value for Government, who have to spend a large proportion of the overall housing budget maintaining buildings that are well past their use-by-date. Systematic renewal of public housing stock should be an integral part of best practice asset management.
Our attention will now turn to the implementation of the initiatives announced. Our focus will be on ensuring that public housing tenants are properly consulted and that they are treated with respect.
Consultation with tenants is vital – especially in relation to tenants who will be relocated. Our position is that the proposals outlined today must be implemented with no disadvantage to tenants in relation to the level of rent that they pay (25% of income) or their security of their tenure.
Further, tenants who have to relocate for a redevelopment to proceed must have the option of returning to their current estate upon projects being completed.
For further information contact 0423 9111 83