Melbourne Social Housing Revamp Forges Ahead
Victoria is pressing ahead with its social housing redevelopment initiative despite a damning parliamentary inquiry, with the latest plans for a Clifton Hill project now on exhibition.
State housing agency Homes Victoria wants to demolish social housing at Noone and Rutland streets in the affluent inner-city suburb and build 114 homes in its stead.
Homes Victoria’s 3244sq m site is 3.3km north-west of the Melbourne CBD, abutting the Hurstbridge/Mernda railway line.
The historic Clifton Hill area has been named one of Melbourne’s most liveable and affluent suburbs, earning it the moniker “the Toorak of Collingwood”.
The Noone Street public housing project is surrounded by heritage buildings as well as low and midrise apartment blocks.
The redevelopment project for the site, designed by architects Fieldwork, includes a 403sq m public garden, and parking for 35 cars and nearly 100 bikes.
All houses will be allocated as social housing, replacing the current trio of 1950s three-storey walk-up apartment blocks.
The new homes would be a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units within an eight-storey apartment building.
This project has also received funding in the second round of the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), as a joint initiative of the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments.
Public housing redevelopment plans
Proposals to redevelop the Clifton Hill public housing development are the latest in a major program by the Victorian Government to renew public housing across the state.
The project encompasses the urban renewal of 44 highrise social housing towers by 2051.
It wants to replace the ageing highrises and buildings with “modern, accessible and energy efficient homes” with improved community facilities.
But the program has been met with considerable opposition.
Class action was brought by residents in 2024, and a parliamentary inquiry into the decision to demolish the public housing got under way last year.
The Victorian Government argued that the 44 towers had reached the end of their “useful life” and said that redevelopment was the most cost-effective option.
It claimed that adaptive reuse or renovation was restricted by structural and design features.
Social housing controversies
The parliamentary committee undertaking the inquiry released its damning, if inconclusive, final report in December 2025.
The report detailed distressed residents who felt the plans had not been well communicated prior to public announcement, concerns over the ground-lease model, which it called “opaque” and lacking in accountability, which exposes the state to “significant financial risk”.
So far the government has implemented few of the inquiry’s recommendations.
It recommended that the redevelopments be halted until full documentation was released and the Victorian Government has six months to formally respond to the recommendations.
In the interim, an RMIT University-led report has underscored the committee’s concerns.
Focusing on the 351 Barkly Street public housing estate at Brunswick, which was purpose-built in the 1970s for older people, researchers found that demolishing and rebuilding the 12-storey tower carried high environmental costs and a risk of disrupting established communities.
Upgrading the 123 units instead would be quicker, keep communities together and cut emissions by up to 44.5 per cent, RMIT’s researchers said.
