The ACT Government has scrapped plans to redevelop Fraser Court in Kingston and will now demolish the public housing site which has been allowed to deteriorate into one of Canberra's worst slums.
Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services assessment management director David Collett said yesterday that the site would go on the market tomorrow. It is expected to fetch up to $20million.
The 104-unit complex has been left vacant, aside from squatters, for two years while the Government and private buyers negotiated renovating the eyesore.
Windows have been smashed, pipes have been removed and squatters still come and go.
In its chequered past, Fraser Court has been the site of murder investigations, theft, assault and drug laboratories.
Housing Minister John Hargreaves said yesterday that it was these social problems which led to the site's sale.
"Fraser Court was not providing us with the social outcomes we wanted to see in our tenants," he said. "With the return on the investment, we will be able to buy or build stock that suits the needs of the people on our housing list."
As Kingston residents expressed relief yesterday that the eyesore would soon be gone, real estate agents said the 1.39ha site should sell for between $15million and $20million.
ACT-based developers Amalgamated Properties, Hindmarsh, Canberra Investment Corporation and Village Building Company will be among developers targeted in a sale-by-tender package offering three options for the land, which is bounded by Kennedy and Leichhardt streets.
Expressions of interest will be invited to either buy the block and develop it or subdivide it into small allotments or allow up to six separate purchasers to develop smaller allotments. Under the last scenario one or two blocks could be developed for public housing.
Mr Collett said the department would use the money to buy smaller pockets of public housing throughout Canberra's suburbs.
"It's what we call 'salt and pepper' housing," Mr Collett said. "This is where we may own a few apartments on the one private housing strata title, or own individual houses scattered through the suburbs."
This approach avoided the security and violence issues related to large-scale public housing developments. "We find there are more significant problems when public housing tenants are grouped together in the one location," he said.
"In places like Macquarie Fields in NSW, everyone at school is a public housing tenant, everyone at the shops is a public housing tenant, everyone on the bus is a public housing tenant it creates social exclusion and community issues."
The department originally planned to revamp the Kingston site to allow a mix of public and private housing, but was forced to cancel the idea after a lengthy consultation process did not come to a profitable result.
"There was some interest from the private sector, and in the last two years, we've been trying to reach an agreement but basically, we couldn't get the numbers to add up," Mr Collett said. "The cost of fixing up the units was close to the cost of demolishing it and starting again."
Throughout this process, the units were left empty, despite lengthy waiting lists for public housing across the territory.
Mr Hargreaves estimated there were currently about 1100 people waiting for public housing.
Mr Collett said, "We understand it's been vacant for some time and we are sensitive to criticism that people are sleeping on the street while community housing buildings remain unoccupied. Unfortunately, it's an inevitable consequence of refurbishment, which needed to be done." Mr Collett couldn't confirm whether 104 new public housing rooms would be bought to replace Fraser Court's size, but he hoped the Federal Government would help.
When the department began considering redevelopment in 2004, half of the units were unoccupied because of structural problems. Damage included water leaks, mould and wall rot. "The extent of security problems increased when the vacancy rate rose because the vacant rooms led to squatters," Mr Collett said. The remaining people in the site were relocated to existing public housing.
Fraser Court was offered for sale along with two other sites, Burnie Court, in Lyons, and Currong Flats, in Civic, about three years ago. Hindmarsh is in joint venture with the department to redevelop the Burnie Court site, Currong did not sell and the Government abandoned a proposed joint venture with St Hilliers to refurbish Fraser Court. While there is enough land at Kingston Foreshore for 1000 units, demand for high-density apartments is strong.
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