By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
AFFORDABLE housing in Dandenong in the future may look something like state-of-the-art townhouses if a benevolent private developer has his way.
Last week, developer Lennie De Souza announced that at least one of his five two-bedroom townhouses in Fox Street, Dandenong North, would be used for public housing.
The townhouse or townhouses will help the Department of Human Services address a public housing waiting list of 4222 households as of last December.
An Auditor-General’s report Access to Public Housing released last week spelt a dire forecast for the public housing system.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SCROLL TO BELOW THIS STORY TO POST A COMMENT.
It stated about 10,000 properties – or 14 per cent of the state’s stock – were so run down they were “nearing obsolescence” and a “maintenance liability”. The system was forecast to go into deficit in 2013-14.
Mr De Souza’s motivation to create more affordable homes comes from his “housing stress” difficulties as a migrant from Sri Lanka in 1975.
“It was hard to put down a deposit for a house. We were lucky to find a bank manager who was very understanding of our situation. As it was, we had to both work – it was a hard slog.”
He said he’d signed a contract with DHS for the lease of one townhouse. “In terms of public housing, it could end up being all or one of them,” Mr De Souza said.
Tenants Union of Victoria spokesman Toby Archer said the “salt-and-pepper” mixed-development idea was welcome in a suburb where rents were soaring out of reach of low-income households.
“It’s trying to avoid heavy concentrations of public housing. It’s a good way to ensure communities are balanced.”
WAYSS homelessness services manager Mark O’Callaghan said such projects were “a way of the future”.
He said there needed to be more government investment and higher rental assistance for low-income households. The 50-year-old-plus fibro public housing in Doveton and Dandenong also needed an urgent revamp, he said.
As for last week’s Auditor-General’s report, Housing Minister Wendy Lovell said a comprehensive property condition audit, a detailed finance review and the development of a clear policy framework were “under way”.
Opposition housing spokesman Richard Wynne said the government must rule out raising rents, selling stock or cutting funding from Victoria’s public housing.
