Making ‘A1 citizens’: policy, perceptions and the deservedness discourse at victoria’s first public housing estate

This article presents a critical interpretation of the Housing Commission of Victoria’s (HCV’s) design and management of the Fisherman’s Bend Estate, its first public housing estate, completed in 1941. It analyses the HCV’s internal files and publicised reports to find that the HCV meticulously sought to prove its tenants were deserving of welfare. In a broader social context marked by negative perceptions of urban poverty, the HCV shaped its policies in response to the enduring assumption that welfare must be limited to the deserving. To this end, the HCV sought to convince broader society that Fisherman’s Bend was reforming its tenants into model citizens. This was a multi-faceted effort, guiding the HCV’s policies for the architectural design, day-to-day management and public representation of Fisherman’s Bend. However, failing to prove this cast Fisherman’s Bend’s residents as undeserving, discrediting the HCV and changing the course of public housing policy.