Public housing shake-up dividing private renters and homeowners

A new public housing shake-up soon to be in effect across Australia will have homeowners living side-by-side with public housing tenants in the same estate or building.

In cities across the country, old tower blocks and run down Housing Commission estates are being bulldozed and transformed, with billions of dollars being spent.

Bureaucrats and developers say public housing residents are the big winners, with promises of a reduction in the long waiting list for housing, as well as the crime rate.

NSW Social Housing Minister Brad Hazzard has announced a 10-year overhaul of his state's public housing system.

"We're going to try and mix it up a bit and make sure the community has a more real feel," Mr Hazzard told A Current Affair.

"A feel that says 'well yes, there a people here who need social housing, but there's also private housing'."

Under the plan, much of the state's old public housing estates will be demolished and more than 23,000 social and affordable housing properties will be built.

The private and non-government sector will help foot the $22 billion bill and once done, the mixed communities will have a 70:30 ratio of private residents and social housing tenants.

A successful example of this new model has already been built in Melbourne.

At Kensington Mixed Estate, not far from the city's showgrounds, it's hard to tell the difference between what is public housing and what is private.

"In mixed tenure communities you do have diversity of both people but also of cultures, of languages and we think that makes everyone stronger," Urban Communities CEO Matthew Torney told A Current Affair.

But not far away in Carlton, a shining example of what could go wrong has occurred.

When it was built, a mixed public/private redevelopment was being touted as hugely beneficial for the social housing residents - with the ability to befriend private renters and buyers on the same estate and enjoy all the same facilities.

But the attempt failed and it wasn't long before a wall was put up to separate the two.

Police are regular visitors to the social housing side of the divide, recently busting a man dealing crystal meth from inside his apartment - just metres away from private residents paying inner-city rent prices.

Writer and long-time public housing resident Tony Reck lives on the social housing side of the fence.

He's convinced mixing public and private won't reduce crime.

"There've been three murders that've occurred in this building since I've been here," Mr Reck told A Current Affair.

"If you've got a social divide between private housing and public housing, the criminals are just going to remain in public housing and go about doing their own thing anyway."