This report chronicles an important yet unstudied chapter in Australian housing and local government. In March 2016, housing activists occupied a series of vacant homes in Bendigo Street, Collingwood, that had been acquired by the state for the abandoned East-West Link Project.

What happened next brought important lessons for housing activists and policy-makers. The research distils these lessons through dialogue with former occupiers of Bendigo Street, local government staff and councillors.

The proposals in the research set the ground for a new relationship of meaningful connection between housing activists and local government, including councillors and staff involved in planning and all areas of social policy.