{"id":123623,"date":"2025-08-06T12:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T12:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123623\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T12:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T12:56:13","slug":"one-in-five-residents-displaced-by-melbourne-public-towers-demolition-plans-relocated-to-homes-purchased-from-private-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123623\/","title":{"rendered":"One in five residents displaced by Melbourne public towers demolition plans relocated to homes purchased from private market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homes Victoria has admitted almost one in five households displaced so far\u00a0by the state government\u2019s controversial plan to redevelop Melbourne\u2019s public housing towers have\u00a0been placed in the private market.<\/p>\n

A parliamentary inquiry is hearing from tower residents, housing groups and government officials as it probes the plan to demolish and rebuild the 44 towers<\/a> over the next two-and-a-half decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Homes Victoria officials on Wednesday told the inquiry committee\u00a0that of the 408 households moved out of three of the first towers slated\u00a0for demolition in North Melbourne and Flemington, 72 were relocated to purchased or leased properties.<\/p>\n

Victoria hiring homebuyer to relocate public housing tower residents<\/a><\/p>\n

The Victorian government’s housing agency is hiring an internal homebuyer as it works to find new homes for residents displaced by its controversial plan to redevelop Melbourne’s public housing towers.<\/p>\n

It follows the revelation that Homes Victoria was recruiting\u00a0an internal homebuyer<\/a> to help acquire properties, raising concerns the mass relocation of public housing residents could place pressure on the state\u2019s housing market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Homes Victoria deputy CEO Dannii de Kretser\u00a0said that Homes Victoria had \u201calways\u201d purchased homes off the private market, but it was done \u201cvery sparingly\u201d, making up less than seven per cent of its total acquisitions last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do it for a particular reason,” Ms de Kretser said.<\/p>\n

“People have particular needs and preferences, and sometimes we need to purchase that home to meet their needs \u2014 often a disability need,\u201d Ms de Kretser told the inquiry. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose people are really struggling to access private rental housing, so by us assuming the role of landlord, we\u2019re able to head lease the property and then that person gets access.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inquiry heard about 60 per cent of residents had been moved out of the North Melbourne building facing demolition, and 70 per cent of those in the two towers in Flemington.<\/p>\n

Demolition has begun on two towers in Carlton, which were empty before the demolition plan was announced.<\/p>\n

Towers architect has ‘grave difficulties’ understanding the demolition plan<\/p>\n

Under the tower demolition\u00a0plan<\/a>, announced by Daniel Andrews in his final days as premier in 2023, public housing at the sites will generally be redeveloped with a higher-density mix of social and private market housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The government has consistently argued that the buildings, which are upwards of 50 years old, have reached the end of their operational life<\/a> and did not meet modern design and amenity standards.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

An artist’s impression of the new public housing towers to be built in Elgin Street, Carlton. (Supplied: Homes Victoria)<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday, a Melbourne architect slammed the decision, telling the inquiry retrofitting the towers instead would save hundreds of millions of dollars. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Richard Cameron, who helped design the original towers, said he had \u201cgrave difficulties\u201d understanding the rationale of the government\u2019s plan. \u00a0<\/p>\n

In a submission, he presented analysis of the two empty Carlton towers that suggested\u00a0refurbishing both sites\u00a0would save the government $110 million. \u00a0<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that the towers\u2019 stair widths no longer met building codes \u2014 by what\u00a0Mr Cameron described\u00a0as the difference of the \u201cwidth of a cigarette box\u201d \u2014 he said they did not need to be entirely demolished. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u00a0can actually provide all the requirements under the Disability Act, and it costs one-fifth of what it costs to build the new one,\u201d Mr Cameron told the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\"public<\/p>\n

A previous report found retrofitting the Flemington towers would\u00a0cost $364 million less than the government\u2019s plan. (ABC News: Simon Winter)<\/p>\n

Not-for-profit design and research firm OFFICE has previously published research in support of retrofitting the Flemington towers,\u00a0releasing a proposal last year that it said would\u00a0cost $364 million less than the government\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

But during at-times heated exchanges on Wednesday afternoon, housing minister Harriet Shing rejected the case for retrofitting the buildings.<\/p>\n

“Retrofit would reduce the total number of homes. It would not be practicable. Everyone would need to relocate,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not fair on residents simply to bring housing up to a habitable standard costing $2.3 billion over 20 years.<\/p>\n

“That’s hardly a good deal for residents or for taxpayers.”<\/p>\n

Representatives from Homes Victoria also faced repeated questioning about the agency\u2019s refusal to release a\u00a0cost-benefit analysis detailing the government\u2019s case for redevelopment over refurbishment, claiming\u00a0it fell under executive privilege.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court previously upheld a claim of executive privilege in relation to some demolition plan documents sought during a class action brought by residents that was dismissed earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homes Victoria has admitted almost one in five households displaced so far\u00a0by the state government\u2019s controversial plan to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,76335,76337,7065,76334,50,31032,76333,76336,35415,8515],"class_list":{"0":"post-123623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-carlton","10":"tag-homes-victoria","11":"tag-housing","12":"tag-melbourne-public-housing","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-parliamentary-inquiry","15":"tag-public-housing-demolition","16":"tag-retrofitting","17":"tag-towers","18":"tag-victoria"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114981934425607466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}