By Mikayla van Loon
A social housing development in Croydon has seen the first of its residents start to move in after completion of one of the biggest housing projects in the state.
The $57 million Big Housing Build project on Lusher Road was one of the first to be funded by the State Government, with Community Housing Limited (CHL) delivering the 137-home complex.
Offering one, two, three and four bedroom units, the housing development has seen 60 of the expected 250 residents find safe, secure and comfortable permanent living conditions.
Joy, who moved into her one-bedroom apartment in December, said “I call it my little piece of paradise”.
“I get up in the morning and pull up the blinds and it’s just magnificent. It’s just perfect. It’s quiet. It’s peaceful and it smells nice,” she said.
“Even sitting at the front, people will pass and say ‘good morning, g’day, how are you going?’. Now for a solo person that means a lot because you may not see anybody for a week. So it’s nice to have people say g’day.”
Having previously lived in another CHL unit further away, Joy said it was hard for her to travel to see her family who live in the east.
“When I had the opportunity to come here it was because my oldest son was about 40 minutes away [which means] I get to see a lot more of him and my beautiful grandchildren,” she said.
“Since I’ve been here, I’ve been able to go and look after my granddaughter for a couple of days.
“I’m going to see my grandson’s presentation at basketball, things I was missing out on because I was so far away. It was too hard to get to them and get home again depending on the traffic.”
Reliant, mostly on public transport, Joy said having access to a train and bus station within walking distance will make all the difference to her ability to spend more time with her family – the most important reason for wanting to move.
Bursting into tears when she took the phone call letting her know she would be moving to Croydon, Joy said she was somewhat embarrassed but the emotion of knowing what it would mean for her was overwhelming.
Knowing the eastern suburbs from previously living and working in the region, Joy said she was pleased to be back walking Main Street, feeling part of the community and shopping at the European grocer.
CHL Victorian state manager Grant McNeill said expanding social housing offerings in the eastern suburbs has been a key focus for the not-for-profit.
“We’ve started here in the eastern suburbs and one of the challenges for us is we have very few social housing properties,” he said.
“It’s a difficult area to work in but we really wanted to focus on the eastern region when the Big Housing Build came along and this was the first opportunity in Croydon.”
With two further multi-unit developments to be delivered in Croydon and Mooroolbark, Mr McNeill said “it’s going to make a huge difference”.
An important aspect of this housing development, Mr McNeill said, was working with local homelessness services to provide permanent housing for those living in transitional accommodation.
“There’s very few opportunities to move through the system. So the first 20 allocations in this facility were from transitional housing,” he said.
“So not only is it providing housing for people who’ve been homeless and had social disadvantage through housing, but that means we’ve now got 20 vacancies in the transitional housing system.
“If we can keep a steady growth over a long period of time, we’re going to start to have some serious impact on general housing needs, which we know is quite acute.”
Housing minister Harriet Shing visited the complex on Tuesday 26 March and said it was these types of developments that would help the State Government reach its “ambitious but achievable” housing targets over coming years.
“When we think about Melbourne’s population over the coming decades becoming the same as London’s by 2050, we know it’s about building up and out,” Ms Shing said.
The housing statement released in September last year put forward a target of 800,000 homes to be built over the next decade.
The Big Housing Build and regional housing funds have put $6.3 billion towards the building of more than 14,000 new homes.
Ms Shing said all levels of government, the community housing sector and developers need “to take advantage of vacant land close to amenities” especially in the east and deliver “new housing that is a mixed tenure…from the social housing and affordable housing framework right through to private rentals and owner occupiers”.
“We can have the smaller infill developments through community housing partnerships, that means people can live in a variety of different suburbs in a range of different ways, whether that’s a small subdivided block with single bedroom units on it or a large scale development like this,” the minister said
“It will take a number of different configurations to address the need we have and to make the best use of the land that is available.”
North-eastern metropolitan region MP Sonja Terpstra said taking a site that hadn’t been touched for quite some time in the heart of Croydon was an opportunity not to be missed.
“Everyone’s really happy because this site was disused for such a long period of time and has been an eyesore. It made people feel like it was unsafe,” she said.
“So when it was announced this was going to be for housing, it was welcomed by residents and they were saying ‘we want to breathe life back into our street’.”
Improving existing public and social housing stock, Ms Shing said would be an essential part of the equation.
This caused some contention in parliament with the Greens gaining support from the crossbench last week to launch an inquiry into the demolition and reconstruction of 44 public housing towers in Melbourne, which has also been the subject of a class action.
The next social housing projects to be delivered in the area include developments on Bellara Drive and Maroondah Highway in Croydon, as well as Bourke Street in Ringwood.
