Affordable housing across Yarra City, including areas near Richmond, are set to receive a boost following a recently announced landmark transaction.
The transaction relates to a housing agreement between Community Housing Ltd (CHL), Yarra City Council and Alpha Partners, and it represents a milestone for affordable housing in the area. It will see the apartments at what was once the site of the Alphington Paper Mill donated to CHL, which is a not-for-profit association that deals with affordable housing.
According to the Mayor of Yarra, Misha Coleman, 140 apartments will be sold to CHL as part of the overall outcome, and they are required to fill the role of affordable housing for a period lasting at least a decade. The agreement also dictates that 10 apartments be donated and remain in use for a minimum of 50 years as affordable housing.
Mayor Coleman said the area desperately needed a boost in public housing, as well as affordable and social housing.
Major redevelopment sites such as the old Alphington Paper Mill, which covers 16.5 hectares and is set to become a major residential precinct with offices, shops, community facilities and open spaces, have often been a focus of local brochure printing campaigns to promote tourism.
Work on the major project, to be located at the junction of Chandler Highway and Heidelberg Road in Alphington, is expected to begin early in 2021, just nine years after the paper production and recycling operations at the site ceased.
