Residents of Fitzroy’s Atherton Gardens public housing estate in Melbourne rallied, marched and occupied the local office of the Housing Department on Brunswick Street on 16 March.
The rally was organised by the Atherton Gardens Resident Association (AGRA) and was also attended by supporters of public housing, including members of the new electoral alliance, Victorian Socialists.
Residents are angry that the department is planning to spend thousands of dollars on murals for the walls of the four towers, while ignoring more immediate issues such as broken lifts and cookers, a lack of car parking and more. The Housing Department manager has refused to meet with the elected leaders of AGRA to discuss residents’ concerns – and this was the trigger for the action.
The department office was packed with occupying locals, from young children to the elderly, in a display of working class unity across dozens of backgrounds – Vietnamese, Chinese, Sudanese, South Sudanese, Somalian, Albanian and “Anglo-Australian”.
The department called the police on the residents despite the peaceful nature of the protest. ALP housing minister Martin Foley needs to investigate why his managers call police on residents instead of talking to them.
After an hour-long stand-off, the department backed down and agreed to meet the AGRA president and Yarra mayor Daniel Nguyen, who was in attendance.
