Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Public housing services

Ms SANDELL (Melbourne) (12:42): Over the last few weeks I have heard some concerning reports that the government is effectively closing and/or reducing access to housing offices on public housing estates in my electorate. Instead of being able to drop into the housing office, like people can now, to submit forms or report maintenance issues or ask questions or share safety concerns, residents now will need to make an appointment first. This is very difficult for many residents because it often takes hours on the phone to make an appointment. Often people never get through or people face other barriers to making appointments.

The pandemic highlighted the government’s failures in engagement with our public housing residents, and I would have thought that reducing access to services is the last thing they should be doing now. I have also heard the Victorian Labor government has terminated funding for Cohealth to be on the public housing estates and that this will end in June. Cohealth was vital during the pandemic. They ran COVID vaccinations and testing, coordinated referrals for people and employed local tenants to share information about COVID so people could feel safe and get linked with government services by local people they know and trust. Cutting these services is a terrible backward step and has left residents feeling really abandoned. I urge the government to reopen housing offices for drop-ins and extend Cohealth funding. The pandemic is still with us and now is absolutely not the time to abandon our public housing high-rise residents.