‘I feel like a fourth-grade citizen’: Victorian public tenants in private homes fear eviction as the wait for permanent housing drags on

With the Victorian government’s demolition of many public housing towers, some residents have been forced into insecure headleasing arrangements Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast There have been moments of joy during the tough period that Gail and Laura Innes have been public tenants living in a private home leased for them by the Victorian government.

The mother and daughter ended up in the somewhat unusual position, known as headleasing, after their Port Melbourne public housing estate was demolished to make way for a replacement in 2022.

Headleasing involves the government paying market rent to a private owner and then on-leasing that property to public tenants, who pay their usual subsidised rent.

In the case of the Innes’s home in Albert Park, the difference is $4,000 a month.

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