[Monday 13 April 2026] Housing Minister Shing turned the first sod at the HousingFirst development on Grosvenor Street, Balaclava, which will deliver 68 new homes.
“Work is officially underway on the 12,000th home under Labor’s landmark Big Housing Build program,” the Premier declared in a media statement.
She said at least 95 Victorians would benefit from the Grosvenor Street homes, which are a mix of one, two and three‑bedroom apartments.
“They replace 20 older homes and are energy‑efficient and built to last, lowering bills for families doing it tough.”
Urgent relocation of former residents
Residents of the 20 townhouse‑style community housing homes previously on the site, were given short shrift in late 2023 to make way for the new development.
Following the relocation of tenants, the estate remained vacant for more than six months due to planning and project delays.
During this vacant period, the empty homes were broken into and heavily vandalised, attracting significant public attention after footage circulated on social media and was later reported by the ABC.
Link to TikTok video taken in the squats
In April 2024, local MP David Southwick presented a petition to Parliament from Grosvenor Street neighbours concerning the delays and their impact on the street.
It was not until later in 2024 that the redevelopment proceeded through the Victorian Government’s Development Facilitation Program, which by‑passes normal council planning processes, and a demolition order was granted.
Now, in 2026, after being little more than a hole in the ground for over a year, the Premier has declared that the “Big Housing Build Hits New Heights”, and the first sod has finally been turned.
The sod‑turning that social media forgot
TWiSK noted with interest that neither the Minister, local Labor MPs nor HousingFirst published photos of the sod‑turning – normally a routine feature of such events.
Perhaps this was due to the coincident Cabinet reshuffle that saw the housing portfolio change hands. It is also curious that Port Phillip Council, a major backer of HousingFirst, was not invited to the event.
Displace and develop is the fashion
Relocating tenants before approvals, contracts and timelines are locked in appears to be the political and administrative decision of choice in Victoria.
Resident advocates say the consequences of rapid relocation are profound. Residents lose their homes and communities, while neighbours are left living beside decaying sites.
Lengthy hiatus periods often mean that any promise of a first right of return once new homes are built is hollow.
HousingFirst, however, says construction timelines are due to ‘typical project complexities’. It anticipates that construction will actually commence in mid‑May 2026, with completion scheduled for mid‑2027.
What’s being built
The $36m+ Grosvenor Street project will deliver:
- 68 new social housing apartments, replacing the original 20 dwellings
- a mix of one‑, two‑ and three‑bedroom homes
- architect‑designed buildings (H2O Architects)
- energy‑efficient and environmentally sustainable design features
The redevelopment is being delivered by HousingFirst, in partnership with Homes Victoria, under the State Government’s Big Housing Build program.
See Government Officer Assessment Report and Development Approvals & Design (Redacted) for details and some plans
When “More Homes” Means Losing What Was Already There
Based on submissions from residents’ advocates, TWiSK presents a social housing resident’s view of this process.
From the footpath, it was easy to miss what once stood behind the temporary fencing. A small row of homes, modest and weathered, but full. People lived there: long‑term tenants who knew their neighbours, the rhythm of the street, the sound of the tram at night, the short stroll to the pub.
It was community housing, quietly doing its job in a low‑rise neighbourhood of single‑storey cottages and trees that had taken decades to grow.
Now those homes are gone.
In their place is a promise: three‑storey buildings, higher density, more units. More homes, we are told, in the middle of a housing crisis. The logic seems unquestionable at first glance. But standing on a street where scale and calm once defined the neighbourhood, questions linger uncomfortably in the air.
Why did these homes need to be pulled down at all?
The original buildings were not crumbling towers or dangerous high‑rises. They were low‑rise, stable, and already doing what housing policy claims it wants to do – keeping people housed in well‑located areas close to transport, services and jobs.
Could they have been refurbished? Expanded gently? Built upon in stages, without evicting everyone first?
Instead, residents were abruptly asked to leave. Months passed. Empty houses sat vacant. Windows were broken. Walls were defaced. The street absorbed the silence – and squatters -creating uncertainty and disquiet.
Supporters of redevelopment argue that three storeys are modest, and that density must increase somewhere. That is true. But density is not just a number. It is also about sequencing, care and continuity. It is about whether growth comes by adding homes – or by first subtracting them.
There is also the quiet reshaping of ownership and control. What was once community housing embedded in the neighbourhood becomes something different: a larger project, financed differently, managed more remotely, branded as progress.
The land remains for social housing. The rhetoric remains generous. But something has shifted.
Who benefits most from this transformation? The future tenants who may return years later – or the system that finds it easier to clear sites than to work around the lives already thriving there?
And does the flow of State and Federal funding favour new builds over refurbishment? Yes, it does. But these townhouses were relatively recent (1993). Does that mean any or all older HousingFirst housing stock is now a target for abrupt relocation and higher density?
You need only look at the Oasis story for an answer to that question.
