Partnerships in Local Government

However, in looking at what its role should be working toward these commitments, the City of Yarra does not see itself as a housing provider. What we have in Yarra is an existing high proportion of social housing, in fact the highest in the State, with 15 per cent of our residents living in public and community housing. This social housing represents both a massive physical asset to the city, as well as an incredible resource in social capital. We also have another 35 per cent of residents in private rental, which includes a small and rapidly diminishing number of low cost rooming houses - again representing a group of very marginally housed and disadvantaged tenants.

The public housing residents are mainly located in large high-rise estates of 2000-4000 people. These are the legacy of the slum clearances begun in the 1930s and the social architecture movement of the 1950s and 60s which saw high rise living as the solution to housing working class families close to employment, health and educational opportunities.

These estates are now identified as the sites of growing social problems, mainly as a result of the targeting policies begun in the 1970s, which have resulted in them being concentrations not only of poverty, but of people with multiple disabilities, high support needs, and very often high levels of social dislocation.

These issues were all being felt in our local communities, with the last three years of public housing reforms only exacerbating the situation. Council’s response was to embark on developing a range of social policy responses, one of which was an Affordable Housing Strategy. This took 12 months of planning, community consultation and prioritising of strategies.

Given the obvious concentrations of disadvantage in public housing communities, Council decided to prioritise those parts of its Affordable Housing Statement that focussed on both improving the physical stock, and supporting and assisting the communities that live there to have a better quality of life.

Implementation of the Affordable Housing Statement has close links with the implementation of other Council policies, such as the Community Safety Strategy, the Drug Action Plan, and the Multicultural Action Plan. In particular, work on developing "sustainable communities" on public housing estates is bringing together a wide range of community agencies that have not necessarily worked in a coordinated way before.

Key Achievements to date

Under the previous State Government, opportunities for input to State housing policy and programs were limited and Council's advocacy role constrained by a non-consultative approach by the Minister for Housing. However, much that was achieved in this difficult environment can be attributed to strong links with local community agencies with expertise and interest in housing issues. Council's strength was in the existing relationships and goodwill it had built up over many years and in the common vision for social justice that we shared with local agencies providing support to disadvantaged residents.

Partnerships

A. Public Housing Tenants (the most enjoyable partnerships!)

Unfortunately, the defunding of public tenant groups and other housing advocacy groups, the policy of increased targeting to "those in greatest need", and the general reduction of community services over the past few years in Victoria have left the needs of public tenants sorely neglected and in need of major attention. Some of the initiatives Council has undertaken in conjunction with public housing tenants include:

• Lobbying the State Government for the appointment of a Community Development worker on Yarra estates, after the defunding of public tenant groups in 1997

• Facilitating the smooth transition between the defunding and closing down of the tenant association offices, and the establishment of the Rental Housing Support Program.

• Assisting Public Tenant Groups from the Fitzroy, North Richmond, Collingwood area and North Fitzroy in establishing the Yarra Public Tenant Groups Forum. This was initiated by the public tenants after they had been through a 10 week management training workshop funded and supported by Council. This was part of nearly $80,000 provided for public tenant initiatives over the past two years.