A YOUNG Hilton local is keen to develop 19 low-cost short-term lodging units after watching friends with young children struggle in Perth’s red-hot housing market.

However, the local residents’ precinct and neighbours say the suburb already punches above its weight with affordable and social housing and the development risks tipping the balance of local amenity.

Jacea Letizia’s mum owns three adjoining properties on Snook and Oldham Crescents and she recently submitted an application to Fremantle city council to build five two-storey apartment blocks in the backyards.

She says the units could house up to 28 people—mainly singles—and four children, with each unit costing about $180 to $200 in rent each week. She says her ambition to target women and children makes the complex different than most. She expects tenants would live there from three months to a year.

“The traditional lodging house doesn’t really cater for children or women because they tend to just be one bedroom with a shared bathroom and kitchen,” Ms Letizia says.

“Both of my girlfriends ended up in Hilton. One is living in a converted shed/garage and the other is back home with her mother. Neither scenario is ideal.

“Maybe this proposal could change not only their lives but other less fortunate people who will benefit greatly by increasing the affordable housing in the area and give them a leg up.”

• Heidi Robinson and Richard Long love the amenity around their Hilton home, which they say is threatened by a multi-unit development. Photo by Steve Grant.

But Hilton precinct convenor Mary-Ann Goodlich says the altruistic vision masks the reality of a commercial precinct being constructed in the middle of a garden suburb designed for the amenity of families.

She says little attention has been paid to making the design sympathetic, and the outcome for tenants will be cheap rent in miserable, tiny units: “There’ll be no outlook and in the rear she is taking out all the mature trees,” Ms Goodlich told the Herald. “There’s no room for any other trees in the development, because you need a root system and space for the canopy.” She says Hilton’s amenity has already suffered from Homeswest’s subdivisions and “this is nowhere near the standard that Homeswest does it”.

Nearby resident Heidi Robinson is also concerned about Hilton losing the ”garden suburb” tag given by its designers 50 years ago.

She says a new generation of residents has poured money and love into renovating modest workers’ cottages because they want to preserve the feel of the suburb. She believes Ms Letizia’s proposal sets a dangerous precedent.

A nurse at Freo hospital, she sees people discharged from the hospital suffering serious social issues and health department staff look for these type of temporary facilities to house them, so she’s concerned about the impact they’ll have on the suburb. “I understand the need for social housing, but Hilton already has a high concentration of social housing so we don’t need to increase that,” she told the Herald.

Ms Robinson says she loves the suburb so much she can’t even bear to see properties sub-divided for battleaxe stratas but she’d prefer that to Ms Letizia’s proposal.

by STEVE GRANT