Housing Commission of Victoria

The Housing Commission of Victoria (colloquially known as the Housing Commission) was a State Government body responsible for public housing in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1938 by the Victorian Minister for Housing, and was renamed Victorian Office of Housing in 1982.

The main activity of the Commission was the construction tens of thousands of houses and flats in Melbourne and many country towns between the late 1940s and the early 70s, providing low rent housing for low income families. Though the Commission was set up with the best of intentions, by the end of its tenure it was seen as a juggernaut intent on destroying swathes of the historic inner suburbs of Melbourne for 'urban renewal', rather than fulfilling its original purpuse. The most visible legacy of the Commission is the 40 or so high-rise apartment towers in inner Melbourne, all built using the same pre-cast panel technology. The 'commission towers' are popularly considered blights on the Melbourne cityscape, but successive governments have not been able to justify the expense of demolition.

The Commission was established over the Housing Act 1937 in response to slum housing in Melbourne, and worked under the Slum Reclamation and Housing Act 1938. The mission was 'slum abolition' driven by the zeal of Christian and other social reformers, but later became 'slum clearance' and 'block demolition'.

The Commission presided over the construction of the Melbourne Olympic Village in 1956, and made its mark on the Melbourne skyline during the 1960s in the form of high-rise blocks of flats on various sites around inner Melbourne, the largest of which being Lygon Street in Carlton and Atherton Gardens in Fitzroy. Approximately twenty of these precast concrete 20 to 30 storey height buildings were constructed around Melbourne, until the type of development fell into disrepute, mainly for sociological reasons. By 1970 nearly 4000 privately owned dwellings had been compulsory acquired and replaced by nearly 7000 high rise flats.

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