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January 29, 2026 — 6:54pm
The state government has earmarked seven more public housing towers for demolition – all dedicated communities for older residents – confirming more than 600 of Melbourne’s most vulnerable people will be uprooted starting in July.
The announcement came as lawyers for some high-rise residents revealed they were taking their battle to block the 30-year redevelopment program to the High Court, and as new research from RMIT University suggested infill housing and refurbishing the towers would be cheaper, less disruptive and more environmentally friendly.
Housing Minister Harriet Shing announced on Thursday that the next phase of the multibillion-dollar redevelopment program would include towers in Albert Park, Flemington, Kensington, North Melbourne, St Kilda and Prahran.
The announcement listed seven of the state’s 13 “older persons” towers, which are specialised communities designed to help vulnerable people age in place with on-site support workers.
About 70 per cent of residents in the seven towers are aged 65 or older. Some are approaching 100.
Among those given the news on Thursday was 73-year-old Bill McKenzie, who has lived at the Albert Park tower for 17 years. He said the reaction in his building was one of extreme anger.
“We were originally told by Homes Victoria early in the piece that the elder persons high-rises wouldn’t be impacted until the end of the [30-year] process,” he said. “Now that timeline has been brought forward.”
McKenzie and his neighbours have been trying to have issues like broken security cameras, decreased security patrols and drug-affected younger tenants addressed for over a year without success, which he said added to the sting of being told they would now be displaced.
McKenzie said it was imperative relocations must be offered nearby.
“They’ve got to realise we’ve got a lot of people who have lived here a very long time, who are close to medical support [and] family here.”
Housing For the Aged Action Group said it was concerned that some frail residents may not survive the shock of the process.
“The impact of relocations on people in this age group cannot be underestimated,” CEO Fiona York said.
York said she also feared this marked the end of the decades old, dedicated program to cater specifically for older residents – which she said was “the envy of other states”.
“Every day we hear from older people who are unable to survive in the private rental market,
living in significant rental stress and at risk of or experiencing homelessness,” she said.
More than 40 towers across Melbourne – built between the 1950s and 1970s – will be rebuilt with more units, but most will no longer be traditional public housing.
Instead, the sites will see public housing replaced with 10 per cent more community housing (run by not-for-profit agencies), while two thirds will be private rentals. Shing made the announcement while touring the rebuilt Barak Beacon Estate in Port Melbourne, where there would be buildings for private renters, and others for community housing tenants on shared grounds.
The new housing will be built by consortiums which lease the land from the state for 40 years, build the new estates and run them before the option to hand them back to the state in four decades time.
Since the program was announced in 2023, two buildings are being demolished, and residents are moving out of six more.
The minister also announced a new peer-support initiative called the Hand in Hand Community Support Program to link residents who have already moved with those currently in the towers to “offer reassurance”.
“I’m not under any illusions about the difficulty of change,” said Shing. “However, large-scale change – change of the magnitude that we are talking about with high-rise towers development program – is something we need to step through really carefully.”
The announcement comes as an RMIT study argues refurbishing towers is far cheaper for taxpayers than the state’s plan, which remains unbacked by a public cost-benefit analysis. The research proposes a “single-move” model that builds new accommodation on-site first, allowing residents to stay in their community while existing towers are upgraded with balconies, better insulation, and new building wings.
RMIT’s Professor Karien Dekker said their study showed “demolition shouldn’t be treated as the default”.
“Some buildings may be suitable for retrofit, which is better for the residents as this allows them to stay in place, CO2 emissions are lower, and it is cheaper for the taxpayer,” she said.
However, Shing dismissed the suggestion, claiming it would cost “billions of dollars” and “force residents to live on a construction site for years”.
The decision to proceed with seven more towers comes after the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by residents of three towers in North Melbourne and Flemington in a long-running class action aimed at halting the program.
While 91 per cent of residents in those buildings have been relocated, about 30 households have refused offers to move. Next week, Inner Melbourne Community Legal will seek an injunction to stop the eviction of the final households until the High Court considers the matter.
“It is outrageous that Homes Victoria is continuing to press ahead with this program despite the widespread opposition to it from residents and their supporters and in the face of legal proceedings that have not yet concluded,” said lawyer Louisa Bassini.
A recent parliamentary inquiry also called for the project to be halted, criticising the government for releasing only a handful of more than 150 documents related to the plan, including technical evidence or site-specific feasibility reports. The inquiry accused the Allan government of ignoring parliamentary rules to hide the documents.
“This is a matter that has been examined by multiple levels of our court system and found to be reasonable and proportionate,” Shing said when asked again on Thursday to release the documents.
Reach Rachael Dexter securely via ProtonMail (end-to-end encrypted) at [email protected] or on Signal at rachaeldexter.58.
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