ACT Shelter was not happy on Monday to hear of plans to include only about 10 per cent public housing in the redevelopment of major public housing blocks across the city.
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The government plans to re-zone the Stuart Flats in Griffith, Gowrie Court in Narrabundah, the Red Hill flats and adjacent public housing in Red Hill, and Strathgordon Court in Woden, as part of a broader swathe of zone changes across the city.
The blocks contain a combined 385 flats - mostly two-bedroom at Gowrie Court and Stuart Flats; a mix of bedsits, one and two-bedroom at Red Hill; and mostly one-bedroom flats at Strathgordon.
The government has foreshadowed plans to rezone them, in most cases to allow high-density, high-rise housing developments, and says where public housing is retained it is likely to be at a rate of 10 per cent of housing in new developments.
But ACT Shelter's executive officer, Leigh Watson, said 10 per cent was not enough. At the very least, the same number of public housing units should be built as exist now, she said.
"Ten per cent is a reduction in the amount of housing where people on low incomes need to live, quite frankly, more than people on high incomes. They're good areas where they're doing it. Why should people on low incomes be pushed out to areas where there are no amenities, when they, more than people on high incomes, need that access?"
Ms Watson supported the redevelopment of the old housing blocks and also supported the government's plan to break up the pockets of disadvantage by spreading public housing tenants into the community, but said if the areas were good enough for private housing development they were good enough for public housing as well.
Any new development should also include affordable housing and community housing, she said.
“The government has committed to a roof for roof replacement in the redevelopment of public housing on Northbourne Avenue in the general vicinity of the original development ... but by talking about retaining 10 per cent it seems they have different plans for these new announced areas on the south side,” she said. “Not only is the figure of 10 per cent arbitrary with no rationale or explanation as to how it was reached, it also means a decrease in the actual numbers of public housing."
A decrease was especially unacceptable at a time when homeless numbers were rising and housing was increasingly unaffordable in Canberra, she said.
The government is holding community forums to discuss its plans, starting with a meeting on Wednesday, July 30, at the Griffith neighbourhood hall, and another on Monday August 4 at the Harmonie German Club in Narrabundah.
The Griffith and Narrabundah Community Association said the high-density RZ5 zone would allow more than 60 dwellings a hectare and was the same as allowed along Northbourne Avenue. At the moment the Stuart and Gowrie blocks had 45 and 42 dwellings a hectare respectively, and the government had not explained why they needed to be zoned for high density, it said.
Red Hill Residents Group spokesperson Melissa Bennett said any development of the Red Hill flats should be "consistent with and sympathetic to the existing garden neighbourhood character of Red Hill".