Bendigo street housing campaign

The Bendigo street housing campaign (also known as Bendigo Street or People Need Houses, Houses Need People) are a series of occupations of empty state government-owned properties acquired for the previously proposed East West Link tollway in Melbourne's inner north. The occupations commenced on March 30, 2016 with the involvement of the Homeless Persons Union Victoria, and have involved at least fifteen properties in Collingwood, Clifton Hill and Parkville, while ten properties are currently occupied, involving a campaign hub, a First Nations embassy and temporary/crisis accommodation, run by the community.

The campaign has housed 40-100 people including several families, First Nations/Aboriginal peoples, women, trans & gender diverse people, queer people, young people and students. In August 2016 the state government was forced into negotiations with residents, enabling some to access public housing, however it has also continued evictions despite committing to this process, and has not committed to any increase in public housing or other homeless and long-term housing services.

The empty properties were compulsorily acquired or purchased by the previous Coalition state government for construction of the East West Link. The tollway project was subsequently cancelled by the new Andrews Labor government, who initially committed to transferring 20 of the acquired houses to the social housing sector specifically to house homeless people. However, only four or five of these were filled - with people with personal links to the social housing organisation managing the properties - the rest remained empty 6-18 months later while the state government waited to rent or sell them on the private housing market.

There are 22,000 people who are currently homeless in Victoria, 3,000 of whom are children. 10,000 applications for emergency shelter and 35,000 people waiting on the public housing waiting list. There are 80-90,000 empty privately-owned residential properties in Melbourne. Property and rent affordability, and lack of access to public housing are severe issues in Melbourne and regional areas of Victoria.

In March 2016 a group of homeless women attempted to squat one of the empty houses in Collingwood but were quickly evicted by the state government. This sparked a protest at the house involving the Homeless Persons Union Victoria, homeless people, squatters and housing campaigners. After a day-long standoff with the state government over two of the houses, the community gained control of the houses and began using them as a campaign hub, a First Nations embassy and temporary housing for homeless people, demanding that all the properties compulsorily acquired be put on the public housing register. The campaign quickly gained broad support in the neighbourhood and broader community.

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