We call on Hobsons Bay City Council to stop the mass eviction of residents from Techno Park Drive, Williamstown VIC. 

People have been living at the Techno Park estate for decades, mostly in small brick flats built to house migrants and refugees in the late 1960s. Residents have built a life, made their homes, started families, and transformed Techno Park into a green and safe place. 

Some are owner-occupiers, others are renters. Many are from vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including children, elderly people, LGBT+ people, migrants, First Nations people and other economically disadvantaged people. Some live with mental illness. Some have lived there for decades, forming a close-knit community that encompasses a real sense of interdependency, support, and family.

In May, residents woke to notices from Hobsons Bay City Council directing them to leave their homes immediately or face legal action. Council says the zone is industrial, and that people cannot live there. But the community exists because Council chose to accept residential use for decades. Council’s decision to threaten people with eviction and legal action now, in a time of housing crisis, is heartless, bureaucratic, arbitrary, and wrong. It has caused tremendous harm to people and caused them to fear losing their homes.

Council has the power to resolve their zoning issue in a way that keeps people in their homes. There is a precedent for a similar situation in the City of Yarra in 2015, where the council decided to apply a “specific controls overlay” that kept the zone Industrial, and the homes residential.

We call on Hobsons Bay City Council to:

• Withdraw the eviction notices immediately
• Commit to working in partnership with the residents of Techno Park to find a permanent solution that allows them to remain in their homes