Solar panels could be a lifesaver for public housing tenants grappling with Australia’s soaring energy costs

Natalie Rabey doesn’t know how much time she has left. But she knows what she wants to do with it.

The 73-year-old public housing resident has spent more than a decade advocating for improved living conditions for public tenants in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs. She says with the cost of living soaring, she has never seen so many people doing it so tough.“A lot of people around here are getting help from the Salvos and neighbourhood houses with food, especially pensioners. How are they supposed to pay their power bills, medication, groceries when it’s all going up by so much?” Rabey says.

“I don’t know what it’s going cost me as we head into winter because I have to keep the heating on throughout the night, because otherwise in the morning it’s freezing and I start coughing up,” Rabey says. In its state budget submission, the VPTA, the peak body representing existing public housing renters and those on the waitlist, estimates 23,500 existing public housing properties are suitable for installation of rooftop solar panels.The VPTA chief executive, Katelyn Butterss, said the proposal would tackle cost-of-living pressures for low-income households, help Victoria reach its emissions reductions targets, and create more than 1,000 jobs.

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Deb struggled to stay warm in winter, until a community organisation offered helpA community project is retrofitting technology in low-income households to protect vulnerable people against extreme heat, cold and rising energy costs. Norway nationalised their 1 natural resource to benefit every single Norwegian. Their Sovereign Wealth Fund is 1 in the world, today. Meanwhile, this is our reality.
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