Spectre of towers conjures images of segregation

(Lead letter)

Henry Ergas has written an extremely erudite and informative article about the tragic history of “social distancing” of which I was abysmally ignorant, despite a Melbourne University arts degree in history and politics (“Andrews treads historic path to segregation shame, 10/7). My shame, of course, but I haven’t been segregated for it; not yet, anyway.

Clearly, those in the lockdown towers are economically and socially disadvantaged by needing public housing in the first place, but the “segregated shame” of that lockdown is that in this mostly affluent country and state of Victoria those towers exist at all.

Previous governments, both Labor and Coalition, have been responsible for public housing for many decades, ensuring those struggling to put a roof over their heads were “socially distanced” from others more prosperous. This pandemic only highlights how iniquitous and dangerous “segregation” of the poor can be for all of us.