A stoush between the state government and a Labor-led council in Melbourne’s inner west has flared after councillors blocked a social housing project, despite the area having the state’s longest list of people waiting for a new home.
Maribyrnong Council’s Labor mayor, Michael Clarke, supported by two Labor councillors, moved against the development in Seddon at a recent meeting following strong opposition from residents.
The Seddon apartment block at the centre of a stoush between Maribynong Council and the Victorian government.
Dr Clarke argued there was already an unacceptably high concentration of social and affordable housing in the area and the project would mean more people in the area, more cars and increased pressure on amenities.
The Buckley Street apartments were designed as student accommodation but the pandemic has led to both dramatically fewer international students in Victoria and an urgent need to house homeless people who were temporarily moved into hotels last year.
The council had proposed that not-for-profit Unison Housing manage the 66 units in the block as social and affordable housing.
But it received 21 objections from people living in 14 properties, prompting the councillors – including Labor’s Sarah Carter and Cuc Lam – to refuse the recommendation.
Inside one the Buckley Street apartments.
More than $5.3 billon has been earmarked by the state government to tackle homelessness in Victoria.
The council’s decision prompted a strong rebuke from Housing Minister Richard Wynne.
“Every time one of these projects gets knocked back, it’s not councillors that suffer, it’s vulnerable people,” he said.
“I challenge anyone who opposes more social housing to look someone without a home in the eye and say they don’t deserve a roof over their head.”
Maribyrnong’s rejection of the social housing plan comes after Mr Wynne said last month that he would no longer work with the Greens-dominated Yarra Council after it knocked back a plan to build 100 new social and affordable housing units on its land.
Labor minister and member for Williamstown Melissa Horne, local party members and advocacy group Labor for Housing also hit back at the decision in a joint email, asking their supporters to sign an open letter to the three councillors.
The email quotes Victorian government data from March which reveals that Melbourne’s inner west has the highest number of people waiting for social housing in the state, with 5036 applications. It said of 2015 dwellings in Seddon, only 70 were social housing.
“Maribyrnong is a community for everyone, whether your property is worth $1 million or whether you’re escaping family violence, or you just need a place to sleep,” the email states.
Unison chief executive James King at the organisation’s social housing development in Footscray . Credit:Jason South
“To block these people is a betrayal of our values.”
Federal Labor MP Tim Watts also weighed in, saying it was crucial that vulnerable people did not get pushed out of the area as its demographic changed.
“There’s an urgent shortage of social housing in Melbourne’s west,” he said. “We need local government to do its bit too.”
Dr Clarke, an occupational therapist who ran 24 homeless hotels during last year’s lockdowns, said his issue with the proposal was that it was not going to have night support staff.
“I saw three murders, multiple bashings, multiple overdoses,” Dr Clarke said of his experience last year.
“You don’t just pick [homeless people] up off the street and put them in a room; that turns into mayhem. The homeless sector needs more support.“
Dr Clarke agreed there was a need for more social housing in the municipality but said the proposed development wasn’t suitable due to the rooms being too small, and its close proximity to existing public housing. He said it needed to be evenly distributed throughout the area.
Unison Housing chief executive James King said he would appeal the decision at VCAT.
“I know that there is existing social housing within close proximity to the location but, again, they are tarring everyone with the same brush … some housing associations house vulnerable Victorians better than others,” he said.
“We’re not going to build ghettos and have really complex individuals all in the one building.”
Mr King said the Seddon apartments would have been similar to their Napier Street, Footscray social housing project, which has staff on site during the day.
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