Barry Berih calls the North Melbourne Alfred Street public housing tower he has lived in for a quarter of a century his home.
All the medical support he needs for his mild cerebral palsy is there and he is cared for by his mother.
His mosque is nearby and his Eritrean community surrounds him as do his friends and wider family.
But he could lose his community and home after the state government, in a blindsiding decision, announced they would knock down his housing tower.
Now about 1000 public housing residents have launched a class action against the government, the housing minister and Homes Victoria in a bid to stop their dwellings being demolished and rebuilt.
Forty-four public housing towers are set to be redeveloped by 2051, but the residents suing the state government claim their human rights were not properly considered.
Inner Melbourne Community Legal filed a statement of claim in the Supreme Court on Thursday, with the firm calling for the redevelopment plan to be paused and reconsidered.
Towers in the inner suburbs of Flemington, North Melbourne and Carlton are set to be the first to go.
As the lead plaintiff, Mr Berih said the decision had taken an "emotional and physical toll".
“We are still being kept in the dark," he said.
"I don’t know where I am going to be living or where I might end up, and the government isn’t giving us the information we need to make decisions.”
In his statement of claims, Mr Berih said the decision should have involved Homes Victoria and the housing minister consulting the community.
Inner Melbourne Community Legal's chief executive Elisa Buggy alleged the relocation process lacked fairness and her organisation had received contradictory information, making it difficult to give accurate legal advice.
"Public housing residents have human rights, too," Ms Buggy said.
"The right to live free from arbitrary or unlawful interference with home and with family, the right to have families protected, the right to have the best interests of children be protected, property rights, and the right to security."
Renovating and maintaining the 44 towers instead of rebuilding would cost an estimated $2.3 billion over 20 years, about $55 million per tower.
Victorian residents will reap the benefits of Australia's largest urban renewal project for decades, a Victorian government spokeswoman said in a statement.
"The towers fail against noise, sustainability, waste and recycling, bedroom area dimensions, room depth, ventilation, private open space, accessibility and minimum amenity standards," she said.
"As this matter is before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment further."
The decision to redevelop the towers was unveiled in September 2023 by former premier Daniel Andrews as part of the plan to build 800,000 homes in the next decade.
Mr Berih was previously involved in a class action against the state government which forced thousands of residents in high-rise towers into a sudden COVID-19 lockdown during 2020.
