Maribyrnong council has called on the state government to improve public housing in Braybrook.
Concerns were raised at last week’s council meeting about the ageing condition of the suburb’s public housing stock.
Mayor Nam Quach said it was time the government reviewed the housing and assets and looked at ways to renew and rejuvenate them.
“The current state of houses in Braybrook is ageing. They’re poorly designed and don’t suit the needs of today’s tenants in terms of size and design,” Cr Quach said.
“Our tenants deserve to live in a home that is suitable, that’s safe, accessible, not asbestos- ridden, and modernised.”
Braybrook has a significantly lower median house price than other suburbs and in comparison with averages for Maribyrnong and Greater Melbourne.
It is the fourth-most-disadvantaged suburb in metropolitan Melbourne based on the ‘Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas of Disadvantage’.
Cr Quach said renewing public housing could stimulate the local economy by creating jobs.
“We should involve the local people in these jobs and through construction and other ripple effects that come out of renewing old-age infrastructure,” he said.
Cr Quach will write to state Housing Minister Wendy Lovell to discuss rejuvenating the public housing stock.
While not specifically addressing social housing in Braybrook, a spokesman for Ms Lovell said the Coalition had a plan to address homelessness and to improve and expand Victoria’s housing stock.
“As part of our social housing framework, we are spending $1.3 billion over the next five years to upgrade 9500 public housing properties,” the spokesman said.
