Highlights
- Melbourne’s African communities say 2020 harsh lockdown is hard to forget
- While lessons have been learned, more needed to address communication gap
- ‘Involvement of community workers and GPs will help,’ say African community members
Public housing tower residents in Melbourne’s Flemington, who endured the nation’s hardest lockdown last year, are coping with this year’s outbreak on the back of lessons learned.
It was the most severe COVID-19 outbreak response implemented in Australia as restrictions on movement were imposed without warning and residents weren’t allowed to step out of their small apartments even for buying essential items like food and medicine or for exercise.
The Victoria government had then said the residents had to be locked in because of the number of active coronavirus cases in the tower premises.
Many of these residents are from lower socio-economic and/or migrant backgrounds including a large number from East Africa.
One year on, the memory lives on, but as Melbourne undergoes another wave of the coronavirus and its sixth lockdown, has anything changed for the residents of its public housing towers?
COVID communication gap
Public housing tower resident Barry Berih. Source: SBS-Abby DInham
Barry Berih, born in Australia to Eritrean parents, was in the North Melbourne flat he shares with his brother and mother when the announcement of the lockdown was made last year.
In the light of that experience, how does he view Melbourne’s current outbreak and its vaccination rollout? What are the lessons he has learned?
The “lack of communication,” he says, was an issue around COVID then and remains so when it comes to vaccination.
There is no information from our local GPs, to be there [for us], to say it is okay to take it or not
Mr Berih and his brother were later diagnosed with COVID-19 during last year’s lockdown.
He is calling for more resources to be given to the community to address the current outbreak and vaccination rollout.
“The question is what resources can you give to the African community for people who are affected by COVID-19, people who are isolating for 14 days,” he asks.
Mr Berih, who contracted COVID at 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne, became a key figure in organising help for the community from within.
I reckon, just hire the multicultural community to do the job
"They understand the language and [the government should] provide extra resources for those people who are doing the job,” he suggests. 
A sign at one of the public housing towers on Racecourse Road in Flemington, Melbourne. Source: AAP
Get help from African community workers
Mr Berih is not alone in calling for the need to include people of African heritage in the workforce that delivers services to their communities.
Machot Achol is a South Sudan-born Australian who calls himself “a concerned citizen”.
He says involving members of the African community in helping with information would be beneficial.
“We have a lot of people who work in that sector, it would be a good idea to bring some of them in so that when people see them around, it will encourage them [to get vaccinated]. I think that will be the right thing," Mr Achol adds.
I want them to share information with the community members and leaders because when you do that, [through] the ongoing channels of communication with the community, it will get done smoothly
Mr Achol also acknowledges a slight improvement in the government’s communication with the African community around COVID and the vaccine rollout, but he would like to see more done.
In a statement, Victoria’s Department of Health says it communicates with the residents through different platforms before any restrictions are imposed.
“Engagement is tailored to the community on each estate and has included letterboxing, door-knocking and direct messaging. In-person community events have also been held prior to public health restrictions coming into effect,” a spokesperson for the department told SBS Somali.
Improved services, more needed
Carlton housing tenant, Hamdi Ali Source: provided by the talent
Hamdi Ali, who lives in Carlton’s public housing towers, was instrumental in coordinating efforts to assist the residents during the lockdown.
He also maintains that there is still a communication gap between the residents and the authorities.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe anything has changed
But he acknowledges that some services have improved with new agencies assisting the residents.
“There is an organisation tasked to support residents in the North Melbourne and Flemington towers in recovering from the trauma of the lockdown,” he adds.
Other responses to the spread of the virus have also improved including the imposition of a new outbreak and vaccination plan with priorities given to the residents.
“The residents were not divided into age groups. All public housing residents from 16 years of age and above, if they could prove they lived in the housing tower, were eligible [for vaccination],” Mr Ali says.
Easy eligibility for the jab
The biggest change seen between the last year and this is how the state government has managed the outbreak in these public housing towers with vaccination teams in place there.
In a statement, Victoria’s health department announced the eligibility of these residents for the Pfizer vaccine.
“Those living or working in high-risk accommodation have been eligible for Pfizer irrespective of age since July 2021 and have had access to reserved appointments at state-run vaccination clinics,” it stated.
Government offers relocation
The state government offered some large families crammed into tiny public housing flats to move to private rental housing further out of town.
It is estimated around 100 families took up the offer.
Among them is Abdirahman Magan and his family, who moved from the housing towers to a house in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Amongst the challenges he enumerated, online education in a very crowded apartment was a challenge.
“Maybe the apartment is overcrowded. It’s hard for the children to sit close to each other while listening to class lectures or talking to the teacher, but the house has a backyard and different spaces where kids can sit with their laptops, so that is a big difference,” he says.
Mr Magan urges other families to take this opportunity and relocate.
It’s better for families to relocate to houses
Change of plan or heart?
Hamse Isse is a tenant in one of these towers and has experienced last year’s hard lockdown.
He sees a big improvement in the ways the towers are now managed during Melbourne’s current outbreak.
If COVID cases are detected in Level 3 or Level 1 [of a tower], only that level is isolated and everyone there is asked to quarantine in their apartment or they are taken elsewhere for 14 days
Victorian health officials work to conduct testing during a lockdown of a Melbourne public housing tower. Source: AAP
“The surprising thing is that the day I got vaccinated, I had to convince six of my friends to go with me to the vaccine centre by saying to them, ‘let’s increase the vaccine rate’,” Mr Abdisamad tells SBS Somali.
Right motive, wrong practice
Victoria’s ombudsman, Deborah Glass, later found that while the lockdown was justified on public health grounds, the sudden implementation without warning was not.
She also recommended the government apologise to the residents of the public housing towers – not for the lockdown, but for its implementation and the breach of human rights.
Produced in collaboration with SBS Tigrinya, SBS Dinka, SBS Swahili and SBS Amharic.
