Partnerships in Local Government

Introduction

I’d like to share with you a local recipe for community building and social inclusion. Obviously, there are many recipes for any dish, and this should be seen as just one - but hopefully it's one that's going to attract some notice within the policy debates and other activities that follow on from this conference. It goes something like this:

Key Ingredients

a) firstly, establish a community vision;

b) then, undertake some strategic and integrated planning;

c) throw in a bit of advocacy

d) where they still exist, co-ordinate and manage community assets;

e) determine your major priorities; and finally

f) allocate some resources to achieve your goals.

These ingredients also just happen to be a list of the key responsibilities for local Councils in the Victorian Local Government Act 1989.

Whilst there are very clear roles for local government in community building and community development, it is important to note that there are still many people who question why local government should be involved in housing issues.

Thankfully, I am here today to be able to tell you that not only can local government do something about affordable housing issues, but we are doing something. In particular, the work we are doing is intrinsically about building and retaining viable communities. Particularly those communities that are disadvantaged and living within the public housing system.

City of Yarra's Role in Building Viable Communities

A major policy plank in building viable communities has been the development and implementation of an Affordable Housing Statement (or policy). This work is underpinned by Council's commitment to three core values:

1. Actively promoting the positive contribution that affordable housing makes to the City's social and cultural diversity, distinctive identity and the maintenance of a sustainable local economy and community
2. Recognising that appropriate shelter is a fundamental human right, and the critical importance of a range of housing types to meet the diverse needs of our community
3. Providing opportunities for all residents, including those experiencing disadvantage, to participate in all aspects of community life, including planning, consultation and access to resources.

However, in looking at what its role should be working toward these commitments, the City of Yarra does not see itself as a housing provider. What we have in Yarra is an existing high proportion of social housing, in fact the highest in the State, with 15 per cent of our residents living in public and community housing. This social housing represents both a massive physical asset to the city, as well as an incredible resource in social capital. We also have another 35 per cent of residents in private rental, which includes a small and rapidly diminishing number of low cost rooming houses - again representing a group of very marginally housed and disadvantaged tenants.

The public housing residents are mainly located in large high-rise estates of 2000-4000 people. These are the legacy of the slum clearances begun in the 1930s and the social architecture movement of the 1950s and 60s which saw high rise living as the solution to housing working class families close to employment, health and educational opportunities.

These estates are now identified as the sites of growing social problems, mainly as a result of the targeting policies begun in the 1970s, which have resulted in them being concentrations not only of poverty, but of people with multiple disabilities, high support needs, and very often high levels of social dislocation.

These issues were all being felt in our local communities, with the last three years of public housing reforms only exacerbating the situation. Council’s response was to embark on developing a range of social policy responses, one of which was an Affordable Housing Strategy. This took 12 months of planning, community consultation and prioritising of strategies.

Given the obvious concentrations of disadvantage in public housing communities, Council decided to prioritise those parts of its Affordable Housing Statement that focussed on both improving the physical stock, and supporting and assisting the communities that live there to have a better quality of life.

Implementation of the Affordable Housing Statement has close links with the implementation of other Council policies, such as the Community Safety Strategy, the Drug Action Plan, and the Multicultural Action Plan. In particular, work on developing "sustainable communities" on public housing estates is bringing together a wide range of community agencies that have not necessarily worked in a coordinated way before.

Key Achievements to date

Under the previous State Government, opportunities for input to State housing policy and programs were limited and Council's advocacy role constrained by a non-consultative approach by the Minister for Housing. However, much that was achieved in this difficult environment can be attributed to strong links with local community agencies with expertise and interest in housing issues. Council's strength was in the existing relationships and goodwill it had built up over many years and in the common vision for social justice that we shared with local agencies providing support to disadvantaged residents.

Partnerships

A. Public Housing Tenants (the most enjoyable partnerships!)

Unfortunately, the defunding of public tenant groups and other housing advocacy groups, the policy of increased targeting to "those in greatest need", and the general reduction of community services over the past few years in Victoria have left the needs of public tenants sorely neglected and in need of major attention. Some of the initiatives Council has undertaken in conjunction with public housing tenants include:

• Lobbying the State Government for the appointment of a Community Development worker on Yarra estates, after the defunding of public tenant groups in 1997

• Facilitating the smooth transition between the defunding and closing down of the tenant association offices, and the establishment of the Rental Housing Support Program.

• Assisting Public Tenant Groups from the Fitzroy, North Richmond, Collingwood area and North Fitzroy in establishing the Yarra Public Tenant Groups Forum. This was initiated by the public tenants after they had been through a 10 week management training workshop funded and supported by Council. This was part of nearly $80,000 provided for public tenant initiatives over the past two years.

• Other projects undertaken with this money include:

• Community grants of nearly $60,000 to groups based on the public housing estates, including the African Information Network, the Indo-Chinese Support Agency, public arts events on housing estates, a Turkish Women's Support Group.

• Neighbourhood Houses being established on all public housing estates, with Council providing nearly $200,000 of funding. These centres run a huge variety of recreational and cultural activities, giving tenants not only the opportunity to develop new skills, but also to interact with other tenants and local residents, forming important relationships and social networks.

• The well known community gardens project, now established on three estates. These gardens have resulted in not only an amazing array of produce over the years, but brought together tenants from all over the world in a horticultural development project that is now being replicated overseas. Council has also provided massive composting worm farms for these gardens, which have been a big hit with the residents.

B. Partnerships with other agencies in the Community

Yarra has an extraordinary concentration of community agencies, with the suburb of Fitzroy dubbed "the charitable acre" in the post war period because of the number of charitable and relief agencies located there. This is a legacy of the area being a traditional working class neighbourhood, on the fringe of the Melbourne CBD, and with poverty never too far away for many families.

A key issue we have had to work on with local agencies recently has been the threat of privatisation and redevelopment of our high rise estates, with the first example of this at Kensington Estate under the previous government. In response Council developed a paper in consultation with these agencies on Retaining and Improving Public Housing. This is about to be formally adopted by the Council, and will establish the communities’ response to the future redevelopment of aging public housing stock within Yarra.

The five key principles developed are that in supporting the redevelopment of public housing in Yarra the Council adopts the following Principles for Retaining and Improving Public Housing:

1. Redevelopment shall maximise the provision of public housing within the city;
2. Redevelopment shall promote social cohesion, community safety, livability and draw on recognised best practice models for urban renewal;
3. An integrated and planned approach to redevelopment, linking social and cultural life with the physical, environmental and economic development should be implemented;
4. Consultation with the local community must be a key part of any redevelopment process;
5. A strategy shall be developed to minimise the disruption to any tenants forced to relocate during the redevelopment, provide them with choice and assist them to retain local links.

Once adopted, it is hoped that these principles can be widely promoted throughout the broader community, as part of a strategy to promote the benefits of public housing and highlight the important contribution that public tenants make to the life of the city.

Again, it is difficult to properly acknowledge the incredible efforts of the people involved from these community agencies in such a short space of time. But their commitment goes well beyond their paid work, and they are a tremendous resource to the local community.

Conclusion

Local Government can and does have a key role to play in helping to build strong and viable communities, and contributing to the debate on how we all achieve this. In the case of the City of Yarra, we are keen to continue linking our work in the sphere of affordable housing to our work in community building.