Thursday, 9 March 2023

Social housing

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (19:22): (100) My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Housing, and the action that I seek is for the minister to ensure that the lists of Victorians waiting for social housing and priority social housing are published quarterly, as has been the normal practice, and for the minister to provide additional funding to invest in the construction of more social housing properties in Greater Shepparton. There is no doubt that the number of Victorians waiting on the social housing waiting list and the priority social housing list has exploded over the life of the Andrews government. Since September 2014 the number of applications on the social housing waiting list has increased by 59 per cent to 55,043 households waiting for social housing. Even worse, the number of applications on the priority social housing waiting list has exploded by 20,776 applications, from 9900 in September 2014 to 30,766 families in June 2022, an increase of 208 per cent.

There are two things we must remember about these figures. Firstly, the numbers are not individuals but households or families, so the number of actual people waiting for social housing is much more. Secondly, the most recent figures are from June 2022, as this government is now hiding the true extent of Victoria’s housing crisis. Waiting lists for social housing have always been published quarterly, but true to form the Andrews Labor government has failed to publish data for the past two quarters, September 2022 and December 2022. In Greater Shepparton what we do know is that on 30 June last year 2433 applicants had listed Greater Shepparton as a preferred location and that 1362 of those applicants had priority status. While these figures are disturbing, the reality will be so much worse once an additional eight months of data is added in, particularly as it would include the October 2022 flood event, which displaced so many families. In fact the first families displaced in Shepparton during the flood were many of Shepparton’s homeless population that were camping on the local river flats.

The latest data published for social housing properties in June 2021 reveals that at that point Greater Shepparton had 1653 social housing properties. With these homes all tenanted, the prospects of those languishing on the waiting list gaining a home are getting slimmer and slimmer. Again, this data is being hidden, as it is usually published as additional data to the department annual report but the website for the June 2022 annual report still says this data is coming sometime soon – do not hold your breath. The Andrews Labor government is failing Greater Shepparton’s most vulnerable families, many of whom are sleeping rough.