HOMELESS PERSONS UNION VIC - MEDIA RELEASE

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VERY IMPORTANT MEDIA RELEASE by

HOMELESS PERSONS UNION OF VICTORIA - HPUV

If you want to really know what's going on, read this.

http://hpuvic.org/2015/11/18/hpuv-media-release-markham-avenue-estate/

HPUV OPPOSES LABOR'S PLAN TO PRIVATISE YET ANOTHER VICTORIAN  PUBLIC HOUSING ESTATE !!

In reading this media release you will see that so-called 'Affordable Housing' is often not affordable for those who need it most. 'Community housing' and 'social housing' are not the same as public housing. 

 

 Below are some extracts from their media release.

Re Markham Avenue Public Housing Estate in Ashburton Victoria

"Markham Avenue is OURS; it belongs to the public, paid for from consolidated revenue, and it is not the government’s to sell!"

 

"Investigations by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in NSW in 2014 revealed that the area in which corruption has been most active has been between state governments and land developers. Speaking to the Markham Avenue estate, we find that: Almost three-quarters of the new units will be sold as private houses so the state is likely to earn a hefty profit on the project."

Under the title Public Housing not Social Housing.

“The HPUV finds this massive privatisation an affront to the near-35,000 Victorians on the 7-10 year public housing waiting list. However, what we find most worrisome, in addition to the disproportionate allocation of private dwellings vis-à-vis social dwellings, is the plan for the building of social housing itself, as opposed to public housing.”

Community Housing Federation = Peak Body for Community Housing ( aka Social Housing.)

“The Community Housing Federation claims that community or social housing is only available to those who pay 30% or more of their income in a private rental property. In addition to the nebulous nature of this statement, we note that HPUV members currently pay 50% or more of their government benefit on their social housing dwelling, leaving them oftentimes reliant on food charity and on poorly funded not-for-profit organisations. In general, social housing rents contribute to the existing difficulty that all recipients of government benefits are facing to meet the costs of living.”

And under the title 'A complicit media' the HPUV says that 'commercial media provides tacit support to the free market solutions to the long-standing problems of social and economic inequity that we have highlighted. The domination of Australian media by commercial interests gives rise to a narrative which stereotypes public housing estates, portraying them oftentimes as havens for crime and deviant behaviour, where drug users, misfits, leaners, and general miscreants congregate."

'We believe the kind of depiction of public housing tenants and estates we have noted is a form of ‘poverty porn’ in which disadvantaged Victorians are looked upon as a spectacle.'

"We ask the Victorian public to reflect on the nature of social justice in our communities. In pursuing free market solutions to social and economic inequity, are we not effectively leaving people behind?"

HOMELESS PERSONS' UNION VICTORIA

http://hpuvic.org/2015/11/18/hpuv-media-release-markham-avenue-estate/