Social housing, $33 million & MOOP

This morning I met a family lawyer helping a woman with 4 kids at the point of seperation, who had been told by her husband she wasn't entitled to anything, and had to move out of their home that ‘he owned’. The lady hadn't worked in two decades, was applying for jobs madly to no avail, and someone mentioned to her 'that's not right.. go see a lawyer'.

Facing homelessness, in a rental crisis, and herself in the biggest sector of those becoming homeless (women over 55), her situation was quite bleak. In this particular case she was getting legal help and moving towards a positive outcome of an asset split and support payments, so it’s a positive story, though it highlights how disenfranchised people can be in pressure environments, when they don’t know their basic rights.

As cost of living, relationship and generally dealing with mortality create all sorts of pressure on those we work with and rely in our businesses, do you or could you take time to ask your team if they need support in any of these areas?

Redesigning the Housing System

Relevant to affordable living and homelessness, I’ve been fascinated by my home city Melbourne’s urban sprawl since first making it to Lara at 10 years old, in the West of Melbourne, and how we live in communities in general.

For Melbourne we’ve seen unchecked expansion. Claims such as ‘The city must become a polycentric city with more than one economic heart’ in 2018 with calls for ‘Green corridors’ amidst relentless property development. Now ‘density corridors’ along the main roadways to outer suburbs, nimby’ism for that density corridor redevelopment and the ‘forever increase’ of rents and property prices are part of the cities fabric.

Whilst discussion on the merits of negative gearing at large are entirely reasonable, simple factors of supply and increasing demand are at play, and ever more intensive campaigns to attract visitors and residents to Melbourne mean one thing for property prices.

If this is of interest to you, check out ‘Redesigning the Housing System’ as part of Melbourne Design, this Thursday 25th of May.

It features “.. Jeanette Large , CEO and Company Director of Women's Property Initiatives (WPI), a not-for-profit community housing provider that creates new beginnings for women facing homelessness by providing affordable, permanent homes.

Mary Delahunty , Head of Impact at Super Housing Partnerships , a specialist housing fund manager focused on creating capital flows into affordable housing through institutional investment partnerships.

Charlotte Dillon , General Manager of Housing at the YWCA Australia , one of the largest medium to long term housing providers for women in Australia.

Stephen Woodlands , Founder and Managing Director of Head Start Homes , an innovative community housing provider that supports First Nations people, single mums and other families with fair and practical pathways to home ownership.

and Sophie Rzepecky , Head of Brand at Assemble Communities ..”

If you want to dig further into this, I’d recommend you check out Common-Equity Housing Limited, Tim Riley and Property Collectives, Brougham Street Co-Housing (several friends are involved, I whipped up on the video on the vision page with my iphone) and ‘Creating Cohousing’ by Charles Durrett, which Brougham street is based on.

Lastly I’ll add on Damanur, which has little to do with Melbourne (it’s in Turin, Italy) though wow.. now that’s a thriving model for collective community :)

What could you personally do to improve housing security for those in need?

$33 million dollars, MOOP and self-responsibility

Heard of MOOP? And what would you do with $33 million if it was available for social issues in Melbourne? A great question from the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sally Capp AO .

It took me entering an entire community where 'Leave No Trace' was one of the 10 founding principles, and seeing how absurd 'moop' is to personally change my perspective. MOOP stands for Matter Out Of Place.

I came home to Melbourne, and instantly recognised it.. that container on the floor, a few metres away from a bin.. obviously.. that's not where it's supposed to be!

It's MOOP.. matter, out of place.

In an ideal world we would drop everyone into an alternative reality for a moment where they had to take full account for themselves, and *at least* get trash to recepticles..

When I watch people in cinemas stand up from a pile of garbage they've dropped on their seats and walk out it blows my mind.. how can we be a 'circular economy' if people are too slack to even put things into the places meant for them?

About those millions, a few grabs are below from the Lord Mayor (click here to read in full).

“.. the City of Melbourne invested a record amount in cleanliness during this financial year – $33.6m. Our clean team members have been out pressure hosing graffiti walls and cleaning up litter on the streets. 6,500m2 of graffiti is removed each month.

City of Melbourne added QR codes to rubbish bins, inviting members of the public to easily report mess around the city. A total of 5988 reports have been lodged in the past 12 months.

Our latest investment is $2.6m for a dedicated team that is clearing away rubbish 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

There are 2000 rubbish bins throughout the City of Melbourne, along with 400 recycling bins. We have more public bins per capita than any other Australian capital city.

City of Melbourne is diverting millions to dedicated cleaning programs, money that could go towards homelessness, major projects, or adding green spaces.

So please, don’t leave your takeaway coffee cup on a chair, and don’t ignore the wrapper you dropped. If you see tagging, please report it.

It’s up to all of us to take pride in our streets…”

Who could you explain ‘MOOP’ to? And could you play ‘spot the MOOP’ with them? The next time you see MOOP, what are you going to do with it?

Speak to you next Thursday, I’ll be at the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia National Confernece in Melbourne if you want to catch me in person.

Thanks for sharing my newsletter and pressing the like / heart, it really helps!

- Philip Bateman