Fr Ted Kennedy teamed up with Aboriginal leaders including Bob Bellear and his brother Sol. The Builder Labourers Federation imposed a green ban on the Louis Street site prohibiting the owner from demolishing and redeveloping the houses.

The squatters organised themselves and formed The Aboriginal Housing Company. A grant of $530,000 from the newly elected Whitlam government allowed the AHC to purchase and restore the first six houses. 

When the Fraser Coalition government was elected in 1975, a year later it terminated capital works funding to the project. Without financial assistance the Block descended into disrepair. By the early 1980s the AHC had acquired almost half the properties on the Block and with another change of federal government (Hawke/Keating) came renewed support for Redfern’s Aboriginal community. In 1994 the last house on the Block was finally owned by the AHC .