Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Latrobe Valley social housing

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (19:06): (253) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Housing, and the information I seek is on the Commonwealth Games rescue package promised for the Latrobe Valley as part of the Comm Games cancellation. The Andrews Labor government has misled Victorians from the beginning with the Commonwealth Games debacle. But more importantly, at a local level in my electorate of Morwell we were ready and raring to host a range of Commonwealth Games events, and this catastrophic decision will have a monumental impact on residents, community clubs and small businesses.

We had repeatedly been told that the athletes village in Morwell would be repurposed and used as social housing infrastructure, which is desperately needed in the Latrobe Valley as we experience a homelessness crisis unlike any we have seen before. Data from the Council to Homeless Persons shows homelessness in the valley has increased 85 per cent in the five years to 2021. Given this data is now two years old and given the cost of living is spiralling out of control, we can safely assume this figure has increased substantially. People are slipping through the cracks, and this data does not even account for the huge number of people and families who are sleeping in their cars or couch surfing. Some 2783 people in the Latrobe Valley local government area accessed specialised homelessness services last financial year – 2783 of them – more than any other regional municipality in the state.

Even more frustrating is the fact that constituents have visited my office to report vacant properties across the valley, some of which have been built by Homes Victoria for the purpose of social housing, yet they are incomprehensibly sitting empty while people are sleeping on the streets. I have written to the Andrews Labor government several times to report these vacant properties and request urgent action, but I have not received a single response. For three years we have been promised more social housing, but all we have received are platitudes and excuses while the supply of homes is dwindling and homelessness is skyrocketing. So how are we supposed to trust a government mired in record debt and caught in the web of its own lies and financial incompetence to deliver any of the promised $2 billion worth of legacy projects? After years of empty promises, inaction and underfunding people in the Latrobe Valley need more than just words to believe anything this government says. Minister, when will the construction of affordable housing in the Latrobe Valley begin, and will you commit to a time frame for delivery?