A Somali support group which has helped refugees in Melbourne access jobs, legal advice, schools and housing for 35 years could itself become homeless this week despite pleading with Premier Jacinta Allan for new digs eight months ago.
Somali Community Inc. president Farah Warsame, who is currently working out of a cramped space beneath a condemned housing commission tower in Flemington, said it would be a “disaster” for Somali families if his organisation was forced to shut its doors.
“This office has been working with the community and the community trusts us,” Warsame told The Age.
“When people are new to the country, they have our name and our address. They come to us, and we show them which schools they can go to and how they can find the services they need from the government. We are very worried about what will happen if this office closes down.”
The impending eviction of Somali Community Inc., an organisation which has also run programs with Victoria Police to rehabilitate teenage offenders and keep them out of jail, is an unintended consequence of the Victorian government’s decision three years ago to slate for demolition 44 public housing towers across inner Melbourne.
For more than 20 years, the community organisation has operated without a lease out of two offices on the ground floor of a twin housing towers in Flemington, both of which are scheduled for demolition this year.
The buildings have been emptied of most of their residents. As the buildings await the wrecking ball, their surrounding grounds – including a once-popular playground – are fenced off and overgrown.
Warsame said he accepted his organisation had to move, but is frustrated the government has not found it alternative premises for the organisation, despite repeated promises to help.
In response to questions by this masthead, Housing Minister Harriet Shing’s office on Monday said a new program was being put together to help organisations like Somali Community Inc. left stranded by the government’s demolition plans.
“We are preserving the communities that have been built over generations – that’s why we’re launching a dedicated grants program to support organisations like Somali Community Inc to relocate,” a spokesperson for Shing said.
The government did not provide details of how the program would work, what relocation costs or rent it would cover and how much the scheme would cost.
Warsame wrote to Allan in July seeking her “urgent support” to relocate the organisation, and warned that “vital community services” were at risk of being disrupted or ending.
“We are deeply concerned that the forced exit from our long-time office has left our organisation without a base to continue this work,” Warsame wrote in his letter to the premier.
“We have actively searched for alternative spaces and approached local councils, but high rental costs and limited availability have posed insurmountable challenges for a grassroots, volunteer-led organisation such as ours.
“Without immediate intervention, the loss of this office will leave vulnerable families, youth and elders without access to culturally appropriate support that has been built over decades.”
Warsame also wrote to his federal Labor MP, Jo Briskey, who visited the Somali Community Inc. offices, but said relocation was a matter for the state government.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet, in response to Warsame’s letter to Allan, referred him to Homes Victoria – the government department overseeing the demolition and reconstruction of the housing towers. Despite several meetings between Homes Victoria officials and the community group, no solution was found.
In February, Warsame contacted Shing and Multicultural Affairs Minister Ingrid Stitt, seeking their intervention.
“We have been instructed to vacate one of our offices by 6 March and the second office shortly after Ramadan,” he wrote. “This decision places our 35-year community service at serious risk.”
Ramadan ends on Friday with the annual Eid celebrations.
The Age last week raised the issue of Somali Community Inc. directly with Allan, who expressed her concern.
On Monday, Warsame said the uncertain outlook facing his organisation was unchanged.
The Allan government has promised to demolish and rebuild all 44 housing commission towers by 2051. Homes Victoria is still working to relocate the remaining residents from the Flemington towers at 120 Racecourse Road and 12 Holland Court, which are among the first to be knocked down.
The Z-style, 20-storey towers were built between 1965 and 1969 on reclaimed industrial land as part of the Bolte government’s redevelopment of what was then Debney housing estate.
Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper’s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years’ experience.Connect via email.From our partners
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