Housing commission residents in Melbourne say they are running out of food one day after they were placed into lockdown to curb a second wave of coronavirus that threatens to derail Australia’s economic recovery.
Abdi Ibrahim, 27, who lives in a subsidised three-bedroom apartment at Flemington, questioned how he was going to feed his wife and five children after his building was one of nine placed into strict lockdown on Saturday.
‘When you have five kids under the age of five, we need milk and baby formula,’ he told The Australian.
Residents appeared in the windows of the housing commission to protest their lockdown. Pictured: a man gestures with crossed arms at Flemington public housing flats on Sunday
A firefighter drives away from the Flemington housing commission tower on Sunday. Only essential services are allowed in or out for five days, minimum, to test all residents
‘What are we going to eat, what are we going to cook? We are so isolated … it’s like a prison.’
Nine public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne were locked down from 4pm on Saturday, with 500 police stationed across every floor.
Nobody is allowed in or out of the buildings except to deliver essential supplies and services.
The sudden move was deemed necessary to stop the spread of coronavirus after more than 23 cases were found across a dozen households.
Window protests: residents posted signs in the windows. ‘Flemington penitentiary’ this one ‘reads, at the Flemington housing commission flats on Sunday
‘Treat us as humans, not caged animals, end this lockdown, effective immediately’ read these four signs in the subsidised housing block close to Melbourne’s inner city
An estimated 3000 residents have been affected by the lockdown, which will last for at least five days.
Australia’s federal Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has labelled the housing commission towers ‘vertical cruise ships’ – a reference to the Ruby Princess outbreak.
He threw his support behind the Victorian government on Sunday saying the virus was rapidly spreading by community transmission at a rate not seen before in Australia.
‘They are doing a fantastic job but this is a huge effort,’ he said, adding everyone in Melbourne should get tested for the deadly virus.
‘Right around the country we are offering and providing substantial support to our Victorian colleagues.’
Healthcare workers carry boxes to high rise housing commission on Sunday during lockdown
Public housing resident Najat Mussa (pictured) shared social media photos from the lockdown
One of the care packages of food delivered by police to the housing commission residents on Saturday night. Residents complained they didn’t get milk and bread, however more supplies are coming
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said residents would be given food, free rent, baby formula, pet food and medical essentials.
They will also be provided with counselling, treatment for drug and alcohol addiction including methadone for registered addicts, mental health care, family violence counselling and physical healthcare.
‘This is not going to be a pleasant experience for those residents but I have a message for those residents: this is not about punishment but protection,’ Mr Andrews said.
‘We cannot have this virus spread.’
Translators will be doorknocking to explain directions to tenants who don’t speak English.
Some residents of the public housing estate are employed and they will receive a $1500 hardship payment to compensate for missing work.
A crowdfunding campaign for residents by Victorian Trades Hall Council had raised more than $250,000 by Sunday afternoon.
However residents have already begun complaining, shocked by their sudden forced quarantine.
Signs were pinned to the windows at the Flemington tower. One said ‘Flemington penitentiary’, while others said: ‘Treat us as humans, not caged animals, end this lockdown, effective immediately’.
At a North Melbourne housing commission tower, a woman held a sign which simply said: ‘Help’.
A man shouted that he was hungry and needed food from the window of a neighbouring tower.
On Saturday night, police brought in boxes of supplies for residents with more on the way.
Medical workers and police outside Flemington public housing flats on Sunday
Police carry bags of groceries from Aldi towards the housing commission towers at Sutton St, North Melbourne, on Sunday. Some residents yelled out the window that they were hungry and had no food – after just one day of lockdown
A man hoping to deliver food to family talks to police at public housing towers on Racecourse Rd, Flemington on Sunday. Residents complained their essential food boxes on Saturday had no milk or bread
Public housing resident Najat Mussa shared photos to social media of one box showing canned food including baked beans, tuna, pasta, apple juice, jam, weetbix, flour and muesli bars.
‘Weet-bix with no milk, tuna with no bread, this is what we are given,’ the picture had written on it.
Angry residents were caught surprised and unprepared for the lockdown, and have issued a list of demands, saying they should be able to leave their homes for essential reasons.
Within hours of the lockdown being announced on Saturday, residents of the nine housing commission towers began circulating a list of demands including that they not be locked down
A man looks down at the street from the Sutton St housing commission where he is locked in
While the lockdown is initially for five days as all residents are tested for coronavirus, any who refuse to be tested will be detained for a further 10 days according to a letter distributed throughout the towers.
‘This detention will be required because, having regard to the medical advice, this further detention is reasonably necessary for the purpose of eliminating or reducing a serious risk,’ the letter said.
Five hundred police are guarding every entrance and exit, and every level of the building to ensure no gatherings are held and nobody leaves.
Police patrol a checkpoint at the entrance to the Racecourse Road community housing tower in Melbourne on Sunday. Residents are to be given food, cash, free rent, baby formula, medical supplies, counselling, translators, domestic violence specialists, drug and alcohol counselling and methadone for registered addicts
A total of 500 police have been put on rotation to patrol the lockdowny, one for every six residents. Pictured: Police on foot patrol at Flemington on Sunday
Pictured: the housing commission flats at Flemington shortly after the surprise lockdown was enacted on Saturday
Pictured: a view of one of the nine housing commission flats under coronavirus lockdown, this one at Flemington in Melbourne’s inner northwest
Residents in the public housing buildings say they have been left confused after they were handed a document stating lockdown is for 14 days not five.
A four-page letter providing directions of Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen was handed to residents on Sunday.
Thana Sirag, who lives with her parents in one of the Flemington buildings, said police knocked on her door on Sunday night stating the lockdown was for 14 days.
‘We haven’t received any care packages at all,’ she told AAP.
‘We do have milk and bread, but if we are going to be in lockdown for 14 days, which is what we have been told, it is not going to last that long.’
Ms Sirag said she just wants to be treated like everyone else.
‘If we were to be treated like everybody else, we would be understanding,’ she said.
‘We are put under much more severe circumstances than everyone else, we are being treated like prisoners.’