Informal Urbanism + "Big Build" trouble for Barak/Beacon public housing estate, Port Melbourne

City Limits

This week on City Limits, Zeb kicks off the show by interviewing Dr Reden Recio, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Melbourne, on the topic of informal urbanism, giving us an overview of the multiple practices through which individual citizens and groups produce urban spaces, and how informal urbanism intersects with state processes in urban spaces across the global south and north. They also discuss his research with the San Roque informal settlement (of approx 9,000 families) in northern metro Manila, Phillippines; the San Roque community's pushback against the Philippines National Housing Authority's plans to remove all informality in the area to make way for a new CBD hub, a move toward incremental coercive eviction by the NHA, the work of the Save San Roque alliance, and how bottom-up grassroots practices can effectively challenge formal structures and processes in cities.Check out the Tinig Maralita ("Voices of the Poor") website for stories and videos direct from informal communities and individuals living and working in Metro Manila.Later, Kevin and Zeb interview Jeannie Erceg and Margaret Kelly, residents of the Barak/Beacon estate in Port Melbourne, yet another target for public housing sell-offs under the Victorian state government's Big Housing Build.They discuss the thoughtfully designed and cared-for homes which are already in excellent condition, with unhappy and confused residents receiving rushed surprise notifications of their soon-to-be-demolished residences, and being asked either to relocate or change to a private "community" housing provider. Also discussed are the real effects on individuals in the transition from a public to a private (and problematic!) "community" housing system, the importance of their close-knit community in the context of public housing, a glaring lack of governmental transparency or consultation with residents of the estate about their plans, and the Victorian Government spending the least on housing out of all states and territories in so-called Australia. Sign the petition to save the Barak/Beacon public housing estate here.