Public Housing Class Action: Peak body says result devastating for tenants but ‘cold comfort’ in affirmation of Human Rights
Victoria’s peak body for public housing has called today’s class action decision devastating to the tenants involved.
However, the affirmation of the tenants’ rights under the Victorian Government’s Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities will bring ‘cold comfort’ to those affected.
CEO of the Victorian Public Tenants Association (VPTA) Katelyn Butterss says they are acknowledging the distress that 479 households will be feeling today following the court’s public housing decision.
She says their organisation has long considered access to safe, secure, and affordable housing as a human right and today’s decision has not swayed our conviction.
“Talking about your home with the entire State is a brave, and intimate thing to do. Mr Berih and others who have participated in the Class Action have shown a lot of courage and heart.
“We are ambitious for the future of public housing in Victoria. Like many of our colleagues, we work towards a future where every Victorian who needs a home, has one.”
She says it is critical that those homes allow people to live with dignity, in environments that support health and wellbeing. This requires as much from the physical environment as it does from the community around us.
Legal action was launched against the state in January before the Victorian government signed a demolition contract worth $100 million for five towers, including the three involved in the class action. The class action lawsuit, involving 479 households from three public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne.
Butterss says the community at Flemington and North Melbourne are “ultra connected, warm and altruistic” but the buildings they live in have been letting them down. It is for this reason that the VPTA has not opposed the renewals.
But improvements must be made in relocations practices, and in providing certainty for households affected about a guaranteed right of return, and the future management of these new homes.
The VPTA continues to call on the Victorian Government to:
- Be more ambitious. A 10% uplift is not high enough. Commit to a 100% uplift of public housing on the sites, with additional density to be made up of social housing or affordable housing products that are genuinely affordable for key workers.
- Immediately rule out the sale of any land that is currently the site of a public housing home.
She says the government has the power to begin to repair their relationship with the North Melbourne and Flemington communities by promising to deliver public housing designed in line with how the community wants to live.
ENDS