Tuesday, 29 October 2024

 Sam GROTH (Nepean) (15:01): Last week I went down to Southern Peninsula Community Support and visited all the staff there led by their CEO Jeremy Maxwell. They do incredible work with some of the most vulnerable people on the Mornington Peninsula, especially the southern Mornington Peninsula, some of those looking for help when they cannot get it anywhere else. Some of the statistics that Jeremy shared with me and my team are quite startling. Homelessness on the peninsula has risen by 37 per cent over the last five years. In the last year alone we have seen a 33 per cent increase in the number of people seeking homelessness support. There are over 3000 current applications for social housing, of which half are categorised as priority access.

The shire recently commissioned some research into homelessness on the Mornington Peninsula. There are up to 689 people experiencing homelessness. Now, Jeremy thinks that number is actually higher – they cannot keep track of the full number of people – and the largest cohort is on the southern peninsula. Many sleep in tents or in cars. Many are escaping family violence. A lot of them are women with children. Sixty per cent of the people seeking crisis support from Southern Peninsula Community Support are women, many over the age of 50 and up to 85 years of age. Twenty per cent of people who are homeless on the peninsula are under 18 years of age, which is a scary thought. But when you look at the data on those people who need housing, when you have got 1450-odd public and community houses on the peninsula and 428 are empty, the government needs to do more to support a community in need.