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Filling in the GapsA Participatory Post Occupancy Evaluationof Public Housing in Coolaroo West |
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introduction:WHITE HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDBroadmeadows was colonised in 1824. William Hovell on first seeing the district said "Never did I behold a more charming and gratifying sight". Broadmeadows has a white history dating from that time. The Department of Housing and Construction Victoria, the then Housing Commission Victoria did not become involved in housing until the late 50's early 60's in terms of housing provision. This community over the years has developed at a rapid rate with very little overall planning or recognition of the need for social infrastructure. The development of Coolaroo West was perceived by government departments as a continuation of this process. As a result past mistakes have been repeated and compounded. The first homes, built in the mid 1970's by the then Housing Commission, were for the purpose of home purchase. Between this time and the mid 80's a minimal number (approx 100 of the existing 900) of these houses reverted to rental due to circumstances within their households. The $200 dream proved to be more like a nightmare. Many of these found the great Aussie myth of home ownership for all, unattainable. Right from the start in Coolaroo West, Government provision of housing seems to have been aimed at what was deemed to be the "working class". For $200 down and a percentage of your monthly wage you could cross the threshold into home ownership. This threshold, set by the government of the day, remains an invisible line below which fall the "welfare class". In Coolaroo West the initial provision of state rental housing ("welfare housing") has come directly from these "working class" "failures". "Welfare housing" grew with a change of government. The home ownership threshold rose to $2,000. When rental housing was funded directly, the number of houses doubled. Welfare housing became Public Housing and the right of all people to appropriate housing was widely acknowledged. It appeared that the tag of "failure" had at last been dropped. In 1983 the Ministry of Housing and Construction built another 168 houses. 133 of these houses are now rental. Two houses were sold to the Health Department for the existing Community Health Centre buildings. Another house was set aside for the Childcare Centre( ) and a fourth house for the much needed second Community House. Over a period of six months Ministry of Housing and Construction allocated the 133 houses from their waiting list using a special allocations worker who tried to take into consideration the isolation of Coolaroo West, ethnicity of tenants and the size of the family. The aim of this worker was to develop a community of "social mixes". Initially the community came together on issues such as isolation, and public rental housing/maintenance. In November 1983 at a public meeting the Coolaroo West Tenants Group was formed. Over time the tenants group has been a strong lobby group working on issues that affect Public Housing Tenants. Its aim was to enable the development of community policies and to work on strategies to address the implementation of these policies. The Tenants Group has now recognised that this community based style is a very positive way of working, hence, this project. BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECTThe impetus for this project came from tenants' concerns about the location, design and construction of Ministry of Housing houses and the lack of input into these processes. The Tenant Group and the Community House auspiced Coolaroo West Development and Co-ordination Committee, began working with the then MOHC Area office to have input into, first of all, the selection of appropriate sites and secondly the type of stock that should be built on these. During this time the Area Office was most helpful. In 1989 this led to the Tenants Group and the Co-ordination Committee attempting to get tenant input into the design of new housing. From their experience as tenants and from their knowledge of the problems they faced it was felt that there was a real need for tenant participation in design (etc), to avoid the Ministry of Housing repeating its mistakes in future housing. This would also help reduce long term maintenance. However, the Tenants Group had to deal with MOHC Head Office for this stage and Head Office was a lot more resistant to these ideas. After several attempts to push this issue with Head Office with little if any result, the Tenants Group put in a submission to the Ministry of Housing Community Activities Program. They were successful and in 1989 received 12 weeks funding for this project. The original amount however proved insufficient to complete the project. After over a year of sparodic voluntary weekends here and there more funding was found and we could pick up the pieces again. THE PROJECTIn the original application for funding from the Community Activities Program the aims of the project were stated as:
At the same time the Coolaroo West Tenants Groups aim of improving the "Quality of Life" of the tenants has some bearing on the whole project. Some of the Tenant Group's specific objectives formed the basis of the project. These were:
PROJECT PARTICIPATIONThe major roles of supporting and guiding the project workers and formulating and defining the project boundaries were delegated by the Coolaroo West Tenant Group to a Steering Committee. This Steering Committee was also there to assist in the decision making process, giving feedback on progress, as well as representing the different stock types. As the project workers had commenced prior to the formation of the Steering Committee, the Steering Committee needed to ratify this early work. The Coolaroo West Tenant Worker, Pam Vorbach, was to play a vital role in the project. She was to give background information, act as a resource person, and assist in the development of the project and, in the later stage, work closely on the project. The Ministry of Housing and Construction had a well defined role in the project. Ministry staff agreed to gather information such as floor plans, contractual proced- ure, post construction inspection and builders warranties. MOHC officers were also to play some part in the formulation of both the survey and the recommendations. The bulk of the project work was to be done specifically by the project workers. Their tasks were to facilitate formation of the Steering Committee, research previous evaluation studies and methods, gather information on stock types, builders and stock condition by survey, and to write a summary of the project's processes recording the information discovered along with a set of recommendations. Concurrent with these activities, project workers were to liaise with Ministry of Housing and Construction, the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV), Metropolitan Municipal Association (MMA) and the Public Tenants Union (PTU) Victoria. Initially the approved funding covered a 12 week period for a half time worker. The Coolaroo West Tenant Group decided to employ three workers. Those employed were Lyn Welm, Joy Burness (nee Sexton) and Caroline Denigan - all public tenants. The local residents, Lyn and Joy were employed largely to conduct the survey. Lyn had completed community based research with another tenant group. Her main tasks consisted of administration, surveying, collating and research.Joy's background in the community and previous work on local projects proved useful. Caroline was given a more co-ordination, writing, research orientated role. With her background (Bachelor of Arts in Architecture), she contributed design and technical perspectives. For the final stage of the project, Joy was unable to participate due to other commitments. Pam Vorbach, the Coolaroo Tenant Worker stood in to fill Joy's shoes. TIME FRAMEIn the beginning the expectations of all involved in the project were, perhaps, too high. It became evident that the first of the three draft timelines were unrealistic. Delays in getting access to MOHC information meant that the timelines had to be extended and restructured. This had further implications later in the project when insufficient time was available to conduct the surveys. The actual time taken to conduct the surveys was also under-estimated. Along with this the amount of information contained in the surveys, and the number of cross correlations necessary, resulted in the third draft timeline being overshot. Consequently, it appeared that the final stage - compilation of the report was to be done solely on a voluntary basis and to be fitted in with workers other paid and unpaid work commitments. Due to some interest shown by Minister McCutcheon in November 1991, further funds were found to complete the project in early 1992 with the addition of more recently completed stock. |