Melbourne public housing towers COVID crisis

Over the weekend, the last Melbourne public housing tower in hard lockdown was moved into stage three restrictions. With the number of cases within these towers the Victorian government suggested the hard lockdown was essential – whilst the there was a higher percentage within the towers, was the situation handled as well as it could be?

Deployment of hundreds of police around the towers was considered by many heavy handed, implying that the residents would not comply with the requirements outlined by the state government. Ms Dima Abdu, a residents of 33 Alfred Street told reporters "We're more focused on … staying safe for us and the whole community," and suggested that most residents understood why the lockdown was initiated but found communication and respect of the communities within the towers absent. Another point of criticism related to food packages sent to residents - generally lacking healthy nourishing food and at worst being culturally inappropriate given the backgrounds of those living in the towers. This in turn had driven the need of organisations such as the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre becoming involved to bridge the gap.

The nature of high density public housing such as shared facilities make it difficult to contain the spread of COVID-19, however that’s not the only hurdle faced here. Language barriers could also be considered a challenge faced by communities in situations such as the COVID crisis – it leads one to believe at risk community members are placed in an untenable situation simply because of where they live. Hopefully, the crisis, the Governments actions as well as the public criticism of the way things were handled will bring to light the need of change within Melbourne as well as Australia’s public housing situation. COVID has shown both the Government and public can be nimble with change in the midst of a crisis but the focus needs to be better trained on where it’s most needed - more social housing and financial support for our most vulnerable community members.

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