1 July 2021, 130 Racecourse Road, Flemington, Australia. The Flemington Housing Community towers are seen at sunset as the local flock of Pigeons, synonymous with the towers, look for scraps in the park. Once a bustling area of children playing, dealers hustling and residents scurrying with laden bags of groceries, the communal area during Covid is mostly empty, so scraps are hard to come by.
18 November 2024. 126 Racecourse Road, Flemington, Australia. Single mother Bezawit Gizaw relaxes in the morning light with her son Yabsera. 'Beza' emigrated to Australia in 1996 from Ethiopia and immediately lived in public housing with her father. She completed a nursing degree and moved into private rentals before falling pregnant. Unable to support herself after developing health issues and separating from her partner, Beza was relieved and grateful that the system offered a safety net that saw her provided with a home in the Flemington towers, thus avoiding homelessness. The towers Beza and Yabsera a sense of community, 'just like back in Africa'.
Beza is dismayed at the Government decision to demolish her home and is particularly worried about the effect it will have on Yabsera considering how reliant they have become on the support network their neighbours have provided as she looks to re-enter the workforce.
3 June 2021, 130 Racecourse Road, Flemington, Australia. Nor Shanino was raised in the Flemington Towers. Now a community youth worker, Nor was heavily involved in the effort by local youth groups to organise mental health support and care packages for those, including his father - who is auto-immune compromised - who were forced into lockdown. He witnesses and manages the misinformation pervading the residents lives daily, “Some kids are out there saying, ‘Black people can’t get Covid-19.’ I’m like, ‘Where did you hear this?’ ‘It’s on a YouTube clip.’ I’m like, ‘You know I can go home and make a YouTube clip!’” He now acts as a conduit, providing accurate, timely information between Government services and the residents.
3 June 2021, 130 Racecourse Road, Flemington, Australia. The front entrance to the apartment complex at 130 Flemington is smeared with a handprint of an unknown substance.
Since the enforced lockdown in July 2020, deep cleaning for Covid-19 in the government run housing commission apartments has been a point of conjecture for residents. This hand print was still visible ten days after this image was made, clear evidence of the lack of practical communication between Government agencies and residents.
Tasks such as cleaning public areas, gardening or vaccinating residents are seen as a singular, outsourced jobs by Government agencies. For the residents these tasks are seen as a basic need. When these tasks are not performed, it can lead to a perception amongst the residents as a slight on their rights as citizens which sows seeds of doubt about their standing within the fabric of society.
13 June 2021. 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne, Australia. Barry Berih, born in Australia to Eritrean parents, walks through the foyer towards the lift well as he leaves his apartment building.
In 2020 Berih was one of the 11% of residents who contracted Covid-19 at his home at 33 Alfred Street, the tower that was subjected to the longest lockdown of 14 days. As the founder of the not for profit group Young Australian People, he was a key figure in the relief effort. Whilst isolating in his bedroom and with just his mobile phone and social media accounts he rallied the community to help its own. Barry says the biggest assault was to his sense of citizenship. “For those of us born here, we work in government, in private industry. We contribute to Australia. We thought we were Australian. And more than that, we are human. And suddenly we were treated differently. It makes you question everything. It was an enormous shock.”
1 July 2021, 120 Racecourse Road, Flemington, Australia. Elhadi Abass, formerly a journalist who fled the unrest in Sudan, has lived on the Flemington estate for 18 years. There is no tenant representative body in the towers and the communities diversity and multitude of languages leads to conflict within. Elhadi has been a vocal advocate for the residents during their communication with various agencies - health, cleaning, mental health support - working in the estate in the wake of the 2020 lockdown but the dynamic nature of the pandemic and a proliferation of mis-information means he is now dealing with generational conflict within families, as well as the divisions across ethnicities.
21 September 2023. 332 Park Street, South Melbourne, Australia. The view of Melbourne's inner south as seen from the tenth floor of the 332 Park Street South Melbourne Public Housing tower. The tower is one of the 44 that have been slated for demolition over the next ten years, leaving its residents in limbo.
25 June 2021, Alfred Street, North Melbourne, Australia. The Alfred Street public housing towers, illuminated by the apartments front door lamps, are seen at night from Barry Berih's floor.
13 June 2021. 130 Racecourse Road, Flemington, Australia. Ruth Eyakem rests on her sofa in the late afternoon light after a long days work waitressing. Originally from Eritrea and a resident on the Flemington estate, Ruth describes the lockdown as "Undermining my belief that it was possible to be accepted as an Australian." On the day of the lockdown Ruth was on her way to fill her prescription for her anxiety medication when she was forced to return to her flat and told the medication would be delivered to her. It never arrived. Her mental health has suffered as a result. " I will never recover."
9 July 2020. Wellington Street, Collingwood, Australia. Children play on a snakes and ladders board painted on concrete at the Collingwood housing towers.
“The parks were pristine. I remember hanging on the monkey bars, and the scenes through the trees were so pretty. Or we painted, or community organisations would get involved and decide what the kids would do. It was just a huge adventure. All of our cousins, all our friends, met there. We were tiny so everything was oversized to us. Late to us was when the street lights came on. I really felt like the park was the most magical place on Earth.” - Awak Kongor, resident of the Collingwood Public Housing towers.
27 September 2023, 120 Racecourse Road, Flemington, Australia. Tehiya Umer adjusts her Hijab before cooking her families supper.
Tehiya, who is of Oromo descent, is a resident at 120 Racecourse Road, one of the public housing towers in Flemington. She was surprised when, returning home from work, she saw two women from Homes Victoria handing out literature stating that her home was planned to be destroyed. Arriving from Ethiopia 20 years ago aged 27, she had fled her home due to her criticism of the way resources were allocated and the Ethiopian governments corruption. "“Of course in my country they harass you for that. They kill you for that. And I did not want to die,” she says. With her two children, and pregnant with her third, she fled, and was accepted into Australia on a humanitarian visa.
She loves Australia, and puts in hours of unpaid volunteer work helping other recent arrivals adjust to their new home, but does not agree with the way the Government has gone about the announcement, deeming it an unforeseen shock. "It's huge, you know, the way you tell people."
25 September 2023. Dunlop Street, Ascot Vale, Australia. Public housing resident Luigi Rosata, 73, is dismayed at the quality of the newly opened public housing block in Dunlop Street, Ascot Vale.
The new housing has been bogged down by complaints from residents about shoddy workmanship, faulty appliances and a lack of assistance the private company, engaged by the government to maintain the housing tower, gives to residents. The recent Government decision to demolish Melbourne's 44 public housing towers and rebuild a combination of low rise affordable housing and social housing has been met with scepticism and anxiety from the towers current residents, particularly if the new housing is run privately.
7 July 2020. Flemington, Australia. A balloon floats past the Flemington Housing towers as the residents of the towers are subjected to an enforced hard lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the 4th July 2020, nine public housing towers housing thousands of Australians - many from migrant backgrounds- built as part of the post-war slum clearance and now looming over the gentrified inner suburbs of North Melbourne and Flemington, were placed into a hard lockdown with no warning.
1st July 2022. Ascot Street, Ascot Vale, Australia. Clare Hanson, resident at the Ascot Vale 'Walk-Up's' walks through a flock of the ever present public housing pigeons.
For five years Hanson has fought a losing battle against the Dan Andrews led Victorian State government and its multimillion-dollar plan to redevelop the Ascot Vale housing estate in Melbourne’s north-west. The emotional toll of being temporarily relocated weighs on Clare and her fellow residents, many of whom are underprivileged, and or from a refugee background. Hanson said neighbours within the estate were living with uncertainty around their futures which was leading to mental health issues – and has been for years.
22 June 2024. 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne, Australia. At a local celebration for Eid, a young member of the local Somali community stands in goal during a local footbal match between residents of the North Melbourne Public Housing estate.
9 July 2020. Wellington Street, Collingwood, Australia. Residents playing basketball are dwarfed by the Collingwood public housing flats reflected in a puddle at Unity Park.
7 July 2020. North Melbourne, Australia. Hiba Shanino collects food and care items from the carpark of the Australian Muslim Social Services offices to take to those residents under enforced lockdown in the Alfred Street public housing towers. Hiba Shanino is a resident of the Flemington Housing Commission complex but fled when she heard rumours of a hard lockdown. Her parents are locked down in the towers.
Local youth groups banded together in an unofficial coalition to collect and distribute care packages to locked down residents across the enforced lockdown. Although most of the packages got inside the towers much of them did not reach the residents and sat rotting and useless in foyers and hallways as residents, most with English as a second language, were too afraid to leave their apartments for fear of retribution.
10 July 2020. Canning Street, North Melbourne, Australia. Twelve hours after re-opening to its residents, Government appointed cleaners are tasked with deep cleaning the Canning Street housing estate in North Melbourne. The building was in enforced lockdown for five days after cases of Covid-19 were traced to the Housing Commission apartments in North Melbourne and Flemington. Hallways and the towers foyer were stacked with rotting food and supplies. The goods were well intended but breakdowns in communication between residents and the emergency services tasked with enforcing the lockdown meant that authorities confused collection and delivery procedures. Some residents reported not receiving medication or food for days.
22 June 2024. 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne, Australia. Young public housing residents line up for ice-cream and treats at a celebration for Eid organised by the local Melbourne Somali Community group. Tightly knit diaspora communities will be hard hit by the decision to demolish the public housing towers. The demolition process will require Homes Victoria (who oversee the Government public housing system) to relocate families during the rebuilding process. This process has been earmarked to take place in early 2025, spanning the following four years, separating many families from not only community based infrastructure such as schools, local health facilities and sporting clubs but friendships and support networks.
25 September 2023. Ascot Vale, Australia. Clare Hanson, long term resident of the Ascot Vale walk up public housing block, reacts with a sense of disbelief and anger at the announcement of the Daniel Andrews Victorian State Government's decision to demolish Melbourne's 44 remaining public housing towers. Clare has long been an advocate and a voice for her neighbours in the 'walk-ups' many for whom English is a second language and despite battling her own mental health issues has long been concerned with the impact the uncertainty around the towers future is having upon her neighbours.
7 July 2020. Nicholson Street, Carlton, Melbourne. Bright colourful drapery at an unused flat in the Carltons 'Red Building' housing estate. The Red Building is separated from the Carlton housing estate proper by two blocks and is infamous for its perception as a drug den. As of 2023 the original building, with its boarded up windows and graffiti covered frontage is blocked from view by a new tower, due for completion later this year. Whist planned for demolition, its proximity to the newly erected tower will make the task almost impossible.
4 June 2021, 76 Canning Street, North Melbourne, Australia. Ahmed Dini is bathed in sunlight whilst taking a contemplative moment in his apartment at 76 Canning Street. Ahmed, known widely as simply 'Dini' was and still is a resident of the Canning Street complex subjected to hard lockdown in July 2020.
A Somali refugee who arrived in Melbourne aged ten, Ahmed now works as a youth advocate amongst the Afro-Australian community in and around his public housing building. He has been vocal in his assertion that the lockdown was handled poorly and has adversely affected the mental health and trust within the Afro-Australian youth in the area. He says the lockdown put systemic problems in the spotlight, and there is a refreshed willingness from government to fix them. “But there are still a lot of things we are working through, and government is slow.”
27 September 2023, 120 Racecourse Road, Flemington, Australia. The sun sets over the Flemington public housing towers.
There are currently about 10,000 people living in the 44 towers and once they have been redeveloped, the estates will house about 30,000 in a mix of “social”, “affordable” and “private” housing which is a large increase in density.
The Government has refused to give a breakdown between social, affordable and private, and has notably avoided using the word “public housing” in any of its announcements.
Affordable housing constitutes those apartments which will be rented at a discount to market rates. These are aimed not at social security recipients, but people who struggle in the private market, seen by some as a form of privatisation and the end of the public housing safety net.
25 June 2021. 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne, Australia. The Flemington housing community towers, which included four of the nine towers within the 1.6km locked down radius - are seen at night from Barry Berih's floor of the Alfred Street tower. All were planned for demolition in 2023.
