Chief Minister Andrew Barr has spoken about his childhood years in public housing, as he defended his government's plans to build 141 social housing flats across five suburbs in Canberra.
After the proposal to build new homes in Monash, Holder, Chapman, Mawson and Wright drew fierce criticism from some locals, Mr Barr said he rejected the stereotypes some of their opposition seemed to be based on.
"The poor behaviour of a few certainly seems to be colouring the opinion of some sections of the community," Mr Barr told ABC radio on Friday.
"Without revealing too much about my history, not in Canberra but before we moved here, I was a public housing [tenant], I was a child, I was a very young child.
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"You can go from public housing to being the chief minster and so I just fundamentally reject some of the assertions that have been made by some in this debate that all public housing tenants are terrible people, that's very sad."
Mr Barr also pointed out some of the criticism of public housing tenants also applied to those renting privately.
"I've lived in Canberra for 40 years, I've rented privately and lived in apartment complexes with privately tenanted properties where neighbours have behaved in exactly the terms you have outlined who are private tenants so the observation is made that it is only public tenants who get involved in unsavoury activities, the facts certainly don't bear that out," Mr Barr said.
In December 2014, when Mr Barr took top office, he said affordable housing would be one of his priorities.
He told Fairfax Media at one stage when he was a child, his family had moved almost every six months through short-term rentals, making him no stranger to the pressures of finding affordable housing in a high-income city.
In a profile before the October ACT election, he said his parents were just 17 and 18 when he was born, his mother still in year 12.
"In this position that I hold now I'm going to stand up for public housing tenants and the government I lead will build more public housing, that's what we're fundamentally about," Mr Barr said on radio.
"That's why we stand for public office and why we're forming a government. We wanted to do this and with the greatest of respect to those who don't support public housing, I'm sorry but you're not going to have a political ally in me, I support more public housing in this city."
Opponents of the proposals have previously dismissed Mr Barr's suggestions their concerns are thinly veiled NIMBY-ism.
Weston Creek residents are due to march 15 kilometres to the ACT Legislative Assembly on Saturday to express their displeasure about the plans.