Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (19:13): (1405) My adjournment matter today is for the Minister for Housing and Building, and the action that I seek is that the government produce a report and a plan to provide to public housing residents for people currently living in Melbourne’s public housing towers but not registered as occupants. Sergei Pavlov’s mother Tatiana lived at Barak Beacon public housing estate in Port Melbourne for 40 years. When Tatiana’s health took a turn for the worse, Sergei moved in with her to provide the care that she needed. A few years later, when Homes Victoria began pressuring residents to leave so that they could demolish and privatise their homes, only Tatiana was formally registered as living in her home. She was shown home after home to move into, just to have agreements fall through, offers withdrawn before she could accept them, and the final home she was offered was completely inaccessible for her as a wheelchair user. Tragically, Tatiana passed away during this ordeal, and while dealing with the death of his mother Sergei was forced by Homes Victoria to leave Barak Beacon. Homes Victoria would not acknowledge Sergei as Tatiana’s carer or as a legitimate resident of his home. He was not able to take any of his belongings with him from his mother’s unit. He lost his mother, all his possessions and his home in one fell swoop. Sergei’s story is emblematic of the utter lack of understanding and care shown for public housing residents by this Labor government.
The government say that their new demolition plan for the 44 public housing towers across the state will displace 10,000 people living there. That is not only well below the tower’s capacity but it is also well below the number of people actually living in these buildings, as we know that because of unprecedented living difficulties in finding secure, affordable housing there are a large number of people living there unofficially in the towers, not on Homes Victoria’s systems. Whether they are living with family members, staying with friends, occupying vacant apartments, couch surfing or flat sharing, we know that they exist. If Labor persists with this disastrous plan to demolish all 44 public housing towers, both registered and unofficial residents alike will face disregard, displacement and dehumanising treatment, just like Sergei. That is why I am asking the housing minister, if she will not abandon this disastrous plan altogether, to at least audit and plan for the people who call these towers home – all of them.