PEOPLE with disabilities should get priority in a rebuilt Stirling Towers in Perth so they can live close to the city and essential services, Vincent mayor Alison Xamon says.
The public housing building on the corner of Stirling and Smith Streets in Perth was closed nearly 10 years ago and successive governments have not been able to progress the rebuild.
In December the Cook government announced a proponent had been found to handle the first stages of the project under the newly named “Smith Street Build-to-Rent project”.
A consortium made up of Community Housing Limited and Tetris Capital won the job to demolish and prepare the site for redevelopment into a mix of social housing and affordable rentals in a “build to rent” model with a 50-year ground lease.
At this week’s Vincent council meeting, Ms Xamon said: “I first want to say how pleased I am to see that the derelict Stirling Towers, which was vacated of all the social housing quite some time ago, is finally looking to get redeveloped.
“As someone who lives in that local area I want to say what a relief it is, and not only for myself and my family but I think for everyone around there.
“It’s been very unfortunate that since Stirling Towers was cleared out that it has effectively become a hub of antisocial behaviour and vandalism and that continues to cause considerable distress for local residents around that area as well, as the fact that it’s a lost opportunity to ensure that we’ve got social and affordable housing in what it what should be a high density area.”
Ms Xamon said there’d been some discussions between Vincent council and the state government’s Department of Communities about what the final build would look like, and she had been advocating “that it’s quite important that priority be given, with the social and affordable housing, to people with disability, most notably people with physical disability.
“People with physical disability often need to be located centrally… to be able to access services but importantly a lot of people with physical disability have limited mobility and may not have a car. And so that means that access to public transport and to affordable Ubers and taxis becomes really quite critical.”
Building inner-city apartments without car bays has long been the urban planners’ dream across the globe, with visions of public-transport reliant tenants who don’t add to local road traffic. But it’s been tricky to accomplish so far, with most Perth citizens being reluctant to say goodbye to their car during an inner-city move.
In this case Ms Xamon said it could be a win-win for the people and the locale. Reducing the number of parking spots frees up space and funds to make the extra accessibility upgrades in the apartments, and has the side-benefit of lowering congestion.
While Vincent council won’t actually get to make any decisions relating to this state government-led project, Ms Xamon said talks were ongoing and “I look forward to continuing to have very productive discussions with the Department of Communities to try to ensure that we can get these outcomes, because I think it’s positive for our city but it’s also importantly a very positive development for people with physical disability who otherwise may be left in outer suburbs and fairly stranded”.
Housing minister John Carey told us: “My understanding is there is some NDIS housing, however it will be confirmed as part of the final design which will go out as part of community consultation.”
A state government media release says further detail on construction is due “early 2024”.
by DAVID BELL
Perth Voice Interactive 
Leave a comment