At several important sites around Canberra, blocks of dilapidated public housing will be torn down, ready to be replaced by sparking new units.
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That's the good news. The ageing, multi-unit blocks reflect yesterday's thinking, of lumping together public housing tenants.
The tenants have had to live with the mistakes of an architectural and social experiment that the rest of the community rejected decades ago.
Tearing down the blocks is undoubtedly good news for developers and the ACT Government, which gains revenue from land sales, but is there a downside?
Obviously, the residents of the condemned public housing units have to be relocated before the wrecking ball arrives.
When you consider that many of this cohort have significant problems – problems that are often the reason for a person being in public housing in the first place – then it's not rocket science to deduce the impact of being thrown out of their home could be significant.
Will they be looked after and where do they go? And how will the neighbours react if the ageing, low-rise public housing is replaced by relatively tall residential units?
Another issue arises when the new developments have, say, 10 per cent public housing. Will that minority of tenants face discrimination from neighbours who have bought their units or are paying full, market rate for rent?
The debate over changes to public housing in Canberra has been going on for years.
This is the first time the government has gathered such a number of disparate projects in a single Territory Plan variation, which deals with developments across the city in one fell swoop.
Most of the public housing blocks – including the Stuart Flats on Captain Cook Crescent opposite the Coles supermarket in Manuka, the Gowrie Court flats at the other end of Captain Cook Crescent, backing onto Jerrabomberra Oval, the Strathgordon Court flats on Melrose Drive in Lyons and the Red Hill Flats– are proposed to be zoned RZ5, which allows high-density apartments, with a maximum height of 21.5 metres and generally six storeys.
But depending where they are, the rules can specify greater or lesser heights to fit in with surrounding houses, and the government points out that it is still consulting on the suggested zones.
Despite the multi-unit public housing that exists on the blocks, at the moment most of them are zoned only RZ1 or RZ2, which covers low-density and low-rise houses.
The first tangible evidence of the work is on Northbourne Avenue near Dickson where a new "gateway" building will greet visitors, instead of the ugly conglomeration of buildings there now.
As work began, the ACT Property Council hit back at community heritage concerns about the future of public housing blocks along the Northbourne corridor, labelling the buildings uninspiring and unsightly.
Executive director Catherine Carter said the Northbourne buildings had "little heritage value, are inhospitable places for people to live, are difficult to maintain and offer an unsightly welcome to Canberra".
A new master plan for the area advocates for the demolition of the majority of the buildings in the precinct including the Owen flats, the Karuah and Garden Flats, the Lyneham bedsitter flats and many of the De Burgh pair houses.
Tensions were high at a northside community meeting last month when government officials struggled to get through their presentation as many residents voiced their concerns.
In Civic, the Bega, Allawah and Currong flats were Canberra's first medium density public housing and have similarities to European postwar housing. Discussions about redeveloping the site have been going on for a decade.
Grouping many people with problems seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, not so much.
In that block, often referred to as the "A-B-C" flats, some residents are scared to be in the lifts with their neighbours, according to Leigh Watson, who was executive officer of ACT Shelter until recently.
The redevelopments will eventually break up the concentration of disadvantage.
"Everyone agrees that is not good, that a mixture of housing types is better," she says.
"In the ACT we actually perform well with the percentage of public-housing, we have a higher percentage than other states and territories but at the same time we have really high unaffordability.
"We also don't have access to cheaper housing, like Sydney and Melbourne do, the housing here is all pretty high standard and uniform, it's apartments or houses so if you're on a low income and you can't get into public-housing, then you are really struggling with private rent."
Watson is pleased the government has given an assurance to rehouse public housing tenants being shifted from Northbourne Avenue to a close location, if they wish to stay in the vicinity.
However she is concerned at a possible reduction in public housing spaces, when the old blocks are replaced with new developments where around 10 per cent of the units are allocated to public housing.
"In light of the government's new decision on the omnibus plan it would be timely now for groups like ACT Shelter to be part of a the broader conversation with government around desirable housing mixes," she says.
"This conversation needs to be broader than public housing or private dwellings as housing is much more diverse than this."
The government's foreshadowed plans to rezone the blocks in most cases would 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.
The Inner South Canberra Community Council says the RZ5 high density residential proposed for some sites was unacceptable.
"Many of the people at the community meetings were of the opinion that as soon as RZ5 is in place the government would be able to build whatever it thought would generate the most money, even if this meant constructing buildings that are out of character with the neighbourhood," it says.
The council recognises the need to redevelop Gowrie Court and the Red Hill and Stuart Flats and called for a master plan for each site to regulate building design and construction.
"Moving the residents from Gowrie Court and the Stuart and Red Hill flats represents a really hard challenge because networks and friendships in these places have been built up over many years," it says.
"Consequently, there needs to be sympathetic consultation with residents and high quality urban planning for their new homes so that people's lives are not severely disrupted when they are re-housed."
A presentation to the Woden Valley Community Council said the government was "seeking to revitalise the public housing portfolio".
It included studies of shadows to be cast by the taller buildings, on the Winter solstice.
This week the community pressure resulted in the ACT Government deciding to change its plans.
It has split the proposal into uncontroversial sites, and sites where concerns were raised.
The government has wisely realised the debate over the controversial redevelopments will unnecessarily delay the ones that face little opposition.
The first package will include the sites in Charnwood, Downer, Greenway, Kaleen, Lyons, Mitchell, Symonston and Stirling and will be released for formal consultation in late October.
The second group, containing the controversial sites, will be released in early 2015.
The government says the number of public housing units will not reduce when the redevelopments take place.
The ACT Government is consulting widely on the changes and the message from Housing Minister Andrew Barr is there will be no unseemly rush and public housing tenants will be looked after.
"There will be a steady and measured approach based on what the market can absorb in terms of the sale of the existing housing stocks, the time frame will extend over decades," he says.
"My key message would be for most people this will not result in much change at all in the foreseeable future but over time there will certainly be change in the public housing portfolio, predominantly because of the age of the stock, it is in need of renewal but there is no fire sale of public-housing properties.
"Also, the other constraint is our capacity to build replacement which we will need to do in advance of selling particular existing stock.
"So I do really want to stress that this will be very gradual change, it won't happen in some people's lifetimes but it will happen, sensibly, as the market can absorb over the coming decades."
About a dozen people had to be relocated when the Dickson Flats were closed and many took the opportunity to relocate further afield.
Barr says they went to Belconnen, Ainslie, Mawson, Griffith, Waramanga, Reid, Holt, Lyneham, Braddon and Wanniassa.
"Some stayed within the inner north and quite a number wanted to be closer to family or friends or employment or to a good school, there were a variety of difference motivations for their preferences.
"That's what driving a lot of our processes, to ensure to the greatest extent possible the relocation, where it's necessary, will be based on what tenants want and where they'd like to live and to better match the housing we provide with the needs of those on our waiting list."
The ACT Council of Social Service is pleased the territory government has a deliberate and long term strategy for the renewal of public housing.
"We have been reassured by the government's public statements in the middle of the year that there would be no loss of housing availability to public housing tenants as the numbers would stay the same," director Susan Helyar says.
"Any tenant who wanted to stay in the location where they're currently living would be supported to do so but that tenants who are looking for a fresh start or looking for a move to a different part of Canberra because it suits them for their families or work or service needs, then that would be accommodated as well."
She agrees the renewal of the housing stock is necessary, to provide more modern units and to create more diverse accommodation and a better social mix.
"Those places were built decades ago and they no longer meet the needs of housing tenants who have different household needs, more people living with disability or who are ageing or single-parent family, so there's a whole lot of reasons why that particular housing stock isn't always suitable anymore," she says.
"Multi-unit dwellings are not supported either by tenants necessarily or by the evidence.
"Of course there are some places where multi-unit dwellings work well but we need to have a much more diverse housing stock so it's not the only option available for people."
Gary Kent, president of the Inner South Canberra Community Council, says many of the public housing blocks cannot be left as they are.
"They're simply not up to up to the standard of modern times," he says.
"We understand governments have limited budgets and limited resources and that's why we believe the residents will get the best deal if the money is pumped wholly back into public-housing.
"We have been promised that all the money received by the government from the redevelopment on territory-owned land will be ploughed back into public-housing, so we think there should be sufficient resources to make sure the needs of the residents are looked after."
He says the group is very pleased to have consulted about the changes as this early stage.
"It gives us the opportunity to engage on the very important issues," he says.
"We do consider we represent the residents of those units and we've indicated to the government that their needs must be reflected as this progresses.
"A lot of people have developed networks over many years living in that accommodation so any move to change that would need to involve very full consultation with the local residents.
"We believe it is occurring and the government have given us an assurance that they are speaking to all of the residents in those units.
"We are keen to see a proportion of the accommodation in the new developments reserved for public housing tenants."
The government will hold design workshops with the community on the Red Hill Flats, Stuart Flats and Gowrie Court and Dickson Section 72 after the current school holidays.
The workshops will be conducted as a "design charette" and run by independent professionals.
The Community Services Directorate notes the concerns raised by the community so far include the height and density of redevelopments, potential loss of urban green space and impact on traffic and parking.
"A number of community meetings have also encouraged the government to take a holistic planning approach to the sites including consideration of master plans or the development of specific precinct codes," it says.
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