2024-08-14
The Victorian Greens are calling for a moratorium on evictions for public housing residents following revelations that the Victorian Labor Government has secretly signed the demolition contracts to steamroll ahead with tearing down public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington.
The Victorians Greens are bringing a motion before the Parliament today that stands up for residents who face being forced from their homes in North Melbourne and Flemington now that Labor has signed the demolition contracts.
It comes as leaked documents recently revealed that Labor is pulling funding from multiple public and community housing, offering up land set aside from public and community housing to private developers and have signed this $100 million demolition contract with John Holland.
During question time on Tuesday, the Greens grilled Labor on whether the signing of the demolition contracts would be used to pursue legal action against residents, to which the government refused to give a straight answer.
The Victorian Greens spokesperson for Public and Affordable Housing, Samantha Ratnam said that Labor have clearly signed these contracts to have legal grounds to force evictions, which will displace hundreds of residents and tear their communities apart.
She added that while Labor continues to pull funding from social and community housing and is handing over swathes of public land to developers, it’s impossible not to think that they will do the same with the towers.
Quotes attributable to the Victorian Greens spokesperson for Public and Affordable Housing, Samantha Ratnam:
“We’re in a housing crisis and instead of building public housing, Victorian Labor is conducting a fire sale of public housing land and demolishing the public homes we have.
“Labor has clearly signed these contracts in order to pursue legal action against residents and force evictions displacing hundreds of people who are currently living in the North Melbourne and Flemington towers.
“We’re having thousands of conversations directly with residents who have no certainty about their future.
“Labor has sold off hectares of public housing and land to private developers - now they’ve signed these contracts, how can Victorians have any confidence they won’t do the same to all 44 public housing towers?
“We won’t stop holding Labor’s feet to the fire on this. We’re in the middle of a housing crisis where we should be building more public housing on public land, not tearing down our existing housing and selling off public land to private developers for massive profits.”