September 2009

Units refurbished with little fuss

Munira Aganovic is one of the 11 tenants at public housing units in Rochester Street, Braybrook, singing the praises of maintenance workers who have transformed her house.

The work has been funded through the Commonwealth Nation Building and Jobs Plan program.

Mrs Aganovic has had her unit totally renovated—new kitchen and bathroom, plumbing upgrade, security door replacement and painting throughout to add more light and freshness to her home.

A new process to minimise disruption to tenants’ lives became possible when one of the 11 units was vacated.

This has allowed the builders to transfer a tenant into the vacant unit while work was underway in their unit.

Once that work was done, the tenant moved back to the original—but newly refurbished—unit.

The process will then be repeated until all units are renovated.

Such minimal disruption was considered a small price to pay by Mrs Aganovic and her neighbours.

Work in many of the units is now finished and the rest will be completed before the end of the year.

About $732,750 has been allocated to the Rochester Street project.

Across the City of Maribyrnong, a further $675,000 has been allocated to other Office of Housing and Footscray Housing Cooperative properties thanks to the Commonwealth’s Nation Building funding.