Seven public housing towers in Melbourne have been named as the next to go as part of the Victorian Government’s program to demolish and rebuild 44 public housing towers across the city’s inner suburbs.

The Victorian Government has named seven towers that will be demolished and rebuilt in the next phase of the state’s High-Rise Redevelopment Program.

The seven towers are located at:

• 29 Crown Street in Flemington
• 94 Ormond Street in Kensington
• 159 Melrose Street in North Melbourne
• 27 King Street in Prahran
• 25 King Street in Prahran
• 150 Inkerman Street in St Kilda, and
• 150 Victoria Ave in Albert Park.

Each of the towers is home primarily to residents who are more than 55-years-old.

Announced in 2023, the High-Rise Redevelopment Program involves the demolition and rebuilding of 44 public housing towers over a staged process to take place between now and 2051.

Spanning across 28 sites covering 39 hectares, the towers were constructed across inner Melbourne suburbs throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

They are currently home to around 10,000 public housing tenants.

According to the Government, the program is necessary as the existing towers are reaching the end of their useful lives.

The towers fall short of modern standards in areas such as noise, sustainability, energy efficiency, ventilation, private open space, seismic resistance, accessibility and minimum amenity, it says.

They will be replaced with homes that are bright, modern, accessible and efficient.

The Government also says that the program will triple the housing capacity of the sites to reach 30,000 people by 2051. This will comprise a mix of social and market housing offerings.

In terms of social housing specifically, the redevelopment program will increase the number of social homes across the sites by 440 dwellings to go from around 6,600 now to around 7,100 by 2051.

However, concerns have been raised about the program on two fronts.

First, some worry about the impact of demolition upon vulnerable residents.

This includes not only the need to secure alternative housing but also the disruption to communities in which many vulnerable people reside.

It is a particularly significant factor in relation to the latest seven towers in light of the aforementioned age profile of residents in these towers.

To assist with this, the Government says that every household has been assigned a dedicated relocations officer.

The officer will work closely with them to make sure their new homes suit their needs and preferences.

To provide further practical and emotional support, Homes Victoria will launch the Hand in Hand Community Support Program.

This will link residents who have already relocated to residents living in the towers and will deliver a peer-support initiative that offers support, information and reassurance to residents during the relocation process.

Relocations from the seven towers will begin in July.

Beyond that, housing experts have questioned why a blanket decision to completely knock down and rebuild all of the towers has been made.

There are questions about why options to upgrade and renovate some existing buildings have not been considered.

In December, a Parliamentary Inquiry report backed by both Greens and Liberal MPs found that the Victorian Government had failed to provide evidence to justify its plan to demolish all of the towers.

That report recommended that all redevelopment works be halted until proper evidence is provided.

This includes cost benefit and feasibility studies for each high-rise tower site which demonstrate that demolition is the best option.

Meanwhile, an RMIT report published last week examined renovations options for a twelve-storey public housing tower in Brunswick – one of the 44 towers that will be knocked down as part of the program.

It found that upgrading the tower while adding carefully placed new homes on the site would deliver faster improvements for residents, keep existing communities intact and deliver lower carbon emissions compared with demolition/rebuild.

(Render of artistic impression for Barak Beacon tower redevelopment in Port Melbourne. Image: supplied by Victorian Government)

(Render of artistic impression for Barak Beacon tower redevelopment in Port Melbourne. Image: supplied by Victorian Government)

In a statement, Victorian Minister for Housing and Building Harriet Shing welcomed the latest developments.

“We’re replacing Melbourne’s ageing housing towers with thousands of modern, energy efficient, and affordable homes, because people deserve homes that meet today’s standards.” Shing said.

“Our high-rise housing towers have reached the end of their useful lives, and replacing them is not a matter of if, but when — acting now gives more Victorians safer, suitable and more affordable homes for decades to come.”

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