A CANBERRA grandmother could be forced out of the public housing residence she’s called “home” for 40 years.

Yvette van Loo’s Cowper Street home in Ainslie has provided a lifetime of memories, and the prospect of leaving the place she has raised her two children in is distressing.

“It’s disgusting,” Ms van Loo says. “I feel as if I’m being treated like a cow that’s being made to change pastures.”

The 74-year-old is one of more than 300 social housing tenants – including  elderly people, people with disability and people with chronic health issues – that received letters from Housing ACT saying they would have to move from their homes as part of the territory government’s “Growth and Renewal” program.

The retired musician, who has a piano in her living room, loves her home and neighbourhood, and is finding it difficult to comprehend why she’s being moved on. 

“You can relocate a bus stop, a garden bench or a rubbish bin, but you don’t relocate people,” Ms van Loo says.

“I know this is not my house, but it is my home, and when it was given to me it was on the understanding that it was for good.”

Ms van Loo’s own family history is one of displacement, having relocated from Algeria to France, before emigrating to Australia half a century ago.

She is happy and settled where she lives, and doesn’t want to move.

“I was kicked out of my birth country and now I don’t want to be kicked out of my home, just so the government can make money out of us,” Ms van Loo says.

Ms van Loo says the unsigned letter she received in February – advising tenants they would have to move because their homes had been earmarked for sale or redevelopment as part of the public housing renewal program – caught many residents unaware and did not keep to Housing ACT’s earlier correspondence that the program would be on a voluntary basis.

She is critical of the lack of sensitivity and compassion Housing ACT displayed in notifying her of their intent to relocate her from the home she has lived in for more than half her life.

“This is despotism,” Ms van Loo says.

The ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) has criticised the housing department’s heavy handed approach to the relocation of some of its oldest and most vulnerable tenants, and has called for a review of the program.

“It’s so callous and cruel,” says ACTCOSS CEO Dr Emma Campbell.

Dr Campbell says the welfare organisation and other community groups had been overwhelmed with calls from “distressed” tenants, many of whom were older women and long-term residents of their homes.

“Some have lived in their homes for 20, 40, even 60 years, many have mental and chronic health issues and the majority of them are struggling to understand what their rights are and who can advocate for them,” Dr Campbell says. 

“It’s difficult to take calls from people who are so frightened by what might happen to them, and who feel they have no control or power against the government.”

While ACTCOSS recognises the need for new and improved social housing options in the ACT, it has questioned the handling of the program.

“We don’t disagree with the ‘Growth and Renewal’ program, the issue we have is how it’s being implemented,” says Dr Campbell.

“We just want to make sure that vulnerable people are placed on an equal footing when they are engaging and negotiating with Housing ACT, and that there are proper processes in place to take into account the individual situations of tenants,” Dr Campbell says.

Dr Campbell says organisations have not received any additional resources to cope with the greater demand for their services arising from calls from concerned tenants.

But she’s hopeful for improved outcomes for residents facing relocations following a meeting with the ACT Housing Minister Yvette Berry scheduled for this week.

In the meantime, Ms van Loo has joined forces with other social housing tenants and started the Housing ACT Tenants Facing Relocation Association, in the hope of fighting back.

This isn’t the first time Ms van Loo has stood up to protect her home. The 1930s dwelling was facing demolition in the 1980s and she mounted a successful campaign to prevent it from happening.

Another trashed hellhole ignored by Housing ACT