Public housing communities and campaigns

Public housing tenants protest eviction plans

Eighty tenants and supporters rallied at the Northcote public housing estate on June 24 to protest plans to evict the tenants and demolish their homes.

Northcote is one of nine public housing estates the Victorian Labor government wants to demolish. It wants to sell the land to private developers who would build high rise units. Some "social housing" would also be built.

Addressing the rally, Aboriginal activist and public housing tenant Viv Malo linked the planned evictions to the history of dispossession of Aboriginal people.

Anger grows at brutal social cleansing

The adage of moving house being the most stressful time of one鈥檚 life has been proved at a West Brunswick public housing estate. Resident Lindi told 麻豆传媒 Weekly: 鈥淥ne hundred residents are being compulsorily moved. The latest notice on the move is it will be in July.鈥

Protests as Millers Point evictions begin

Residents, unionists and supporters protested outside the NSW Department of Housing office in Redfern on May 10, following the first forcible eviction of a resident of Millers Point public housing.

Peter Muller, a 57-year-old electrician, was out working, when police broke into his home and removed a number of supporters who were defending the house.

Call to stop eviction of public housing tenant in Millers Point

Peter Muller, one of a handful public housing tenants valiantly hanging on to their homes in Millers Point, Sydney, told 麻豆传媒 Weekly that he has been served with an eviction notice for 9.30am, Tuesday May 9. He's called on supporters of public housing to turn up in numbers at 32 High St, Millers Point.

"After me, all the remaining Milllers Point tenants are ages pensioners," said Muller, an electrician and a proud member of the Electrical Trades Union.

Video by Peter Boyle for 麻豆传媒 Weekly.

Residents, unions protest Millers Point evictions

Residents, unionists and supporters marched and rallied on March 19 in Millers Point, to protest the continuing eviction of remaining public housing tenants of the Point, Dawes Point and the iconic Sirius Building. The event, which attracted about 200 people, was sponsored by the Millers Point Community Working Party and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).

鈥淭he fight to remain in our community goes on. The fighting spirit of the elderly, the frail and the vulnerable continues the struggle,鈥 publicity for the action stated.

Melbourne public housing site to be redeveloped with private units

The Huttonham Estate in Preston was one of Victoria鈥檚 first public housing estates when it was built in the 1940s.

Once home to 60 families, the houses were demolished five years ago and the land has been untouched and vacant ever since.

Now the Victorian government has revealed plans to build 68 public housing units and an unknown number of privately-owned dwellings on the land.

Housing groups say the land should be used for its intended purpose of housing low-income residents amid skyrocketing property prices in Melbourne.

Morrison鈥檚 hand-out to developers no solution to housing affordability crisis

The federal treasurer鈥檚 鈥渟olution鈥 to the housing affordability crisis is to get state governments to relax restrictions on housing developers to increase supply.

Scott Morrison told the industry鈥檚 peak body, the Urban Development Institute, on October 24 that 鈥渉ousing in Australia, especially in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, is expensive and increasingly unaffordable, but that does not mean it is overvalued.鈥

How can you have more affordable housing and keep prices up at the same time?

The answer is you can鈥檛 do both.

Homes not jail banner.

Fighting for better housing on Melbourne's mean streets

Activists evaded eviction from vacant houses and apartments in Parkville on August 3. The homes had been acquired for the East West Link, a project axed under community pressure by the incoming Labor government in 2014, with a promise to use the properties for public housing.

Waterloo Tent Embassy wins maintenance gains

"The Waterloo Tent Embassy has made a big impact, is winning growing support every day, and has already gained government action on fixing longstanding maintenance problems at the Waterloo public housing towers," Richard Weeks, spokesperson for the Waterloo Public Housing Action Group (WPHAG), told 麻豆传媒 Weekly on July 20.

Waterloo Housing Tent Embassy: 'Re-block, not knock down'

"We call on the Baird state government to re-block the Waterloo towers, not knock them down," Richard Weeks, spokesperson for the Waterloo Public Housing Action Group (WPHAG), told 麻豆传媒 Weekly on July 6. He was referring to the NSW Coalition government's plans to demolish the public housing towers in the inner suburb of Waterloo, and replace them with high-rise, private apartments.

Waterloo Tent Embassy: 鈥淥ur homes are not for sale!鈥

Public housing tenants, led by the Waterloo Public Housing Action Group (WPHAG) and with the support of the Redfern-Waterloo Aboriginal community, have set up a tent embassy at Waterloo Green to resist the destruction of their homes and their community. The Embassy is supported by Aboriginal elder Jenny Munro who led the successful embassy at the Block in Redfern.

TJ Hickey Memorial could be closer to reality

Police victim TJ Hickey could be closer to receiving a much sought after memorial. Brad Hazzard, NSW Minister for Family and Community Services and Social Housing, has told TJ's mother, Aunty Gail Hickey, he is sympathetic to the family's need for healing and would like to see the issue of a permanent memorial resolved.