Public tower tenants offered relocation to fight spread of COVID-19 - The Age

People living in overcrowded public housing towers will be offered the opportunity to move to private rental properties for two years to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Nine towers in Flemington and North Melbourne were placed under hard lockdown in July following COVID-19 outbreaks in public housing estates, with 3000 residents banned from leaving their homes for five days.

Public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne were locked down for five days. Credit:Justin McManus

Under the State Government’s $31.7 million tower relocation program, up to 420 private rental properties will be leased for two years and offered to high rise estate tenants at greater risk due to the coronavirus.

The voluntary program will target public housing tenants living in larger households or those who have medical issues that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19.

The government says it will significantly reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission and open up much needed social housing for Victorians on the Victorian Housing register.

An estimated 80,000 people are waiting for public housing in Victoria.

The state has the lowest proportion of social housing stock in Australia at 3.2 per cent of all housing, compared with the national average of 4.5 per cent.

“Relocating large families and residents with health issues who wish to move will reduce the risk coronavirus poses to these households,” said Housing Minister Richard Wynne.

“It’s part of our ongoing work to keep high-rise public housing tenants safe and supported during the pandemic.”

Eligible households will be contacted directly to discuss the options available under the program.

All tenants will continue to have access to long term public housing, with other suitable long-term options available for households at the end of the two year program.

The Victorian Greens wrote to Mr Wynne in June warning many families were desperately waiting for transfers to ease their overcrowded living conditions.

The letter said these conditions had become even more stark during COVID-19 restrictions, with children attempting to learn from home while parents worked in tiny apartments.

Acting Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell, said the tower relocation program would be a relief for many public housing residents who are living in overcrowded and poorly maintained public housing, and worried about the risk of COVID-19.

“But it’s also a clear acknowledgement by the Victorian Government that they have abandoned public housing and failed to build enough houses for people, and this failure by the Government is what got us into this mess in the first place,” Ms Sandell said.

“A temporary fix will only put a band-aid on the problem. If the government wants to truly support public housing residents in the long-term, it needs to build more public housing so these families actually have somewhere to live when these private leases run out in two years’ time. We also cannot allow this to be 'privatisation by stealth' of public housing."

The tower relocation program was supported by Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton as a measure to help slow the spread of coronavirus

The government said it built on protection measures already implemented in high-rise public housing towers such as increased cleaning and sanitisation of common areas and touch points, hand sanitiser in all towers and information in a variety of languages on how to slow the spread of coronavirus.

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2020-08-29 09:53:00Z
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