Council for Homeless Persons has strongly welcomed the recommendation from Infrastructure Victoria that the State Government fund the building of 60,000 new social homes over 15 years.
The recommendation to build roughly 4,000 new social housing homes a year, made by the Government's own infrastructure advisory body, proves this essential step to end the homelessness crisis is viable and cost-effective.
"The case for building new homes is now irrefutable. The parliamentary Inquiry into the Rental and Housing Affordability Crisis previously backed the homelessness sector's longstanding call for 60,000 new social homes to meet current need. And this Infrastructure Victoria plan shows this build is not just necessary, it's achievable," CEO of Council to Homeless Persons Deborah Di Natale said.
As part of its blueprint for the next 30 years, Infrastructure Victoria has estimated the cost of building around 4,000 new social homes a year would be about $5 billion annually. It also estimated the Victorian Government could cover 95 per cent of those costs, with the Commonwealth funding the rest.
"There's no longer any excuse for inaction. The homelessness sector says we need it. The Government's own infrastructure advisor says we need it. So why are we not getting on with it? Every day we delay is another day that tens of thousands of Victorians are forced to suffer needlessly.
"It's now up to the government to show it has the conviction to end homelessness by making the decisive investment its own experts are calling for. It's time to act and take control of this crisis. It can and must be done," Deborah Di Natale said.
As part of its recommendations on social housing, Infrastructure Victoria has also recommended a 10-year program to build more social housing for Aboriginal Victorians.
"Committing to 4,000 new homes a year would be a big step forward, but we would encourage the Victorian Government to be ambitious when it comes to this pressing issue of housing, and build 6,000 new social housing properties a year," Deborah Di Natale said.
Fast facts:
- 102,000 people sought assistance from homelessness services in Victoria in 2023/24 (up 4% from the previous year)
- 60,000 of them (58%) were women
- 13,000 were working Victorians (up 23% in 5 years)
- One third of people seeking homelessness assistance in Australia are in Victoria, but we have the lowest proportion of social housing in the country (2.9%)
- The Top 3 reasons people gave for seeking assistance from Victorian homelessness services last year were:
- Family & domestic violence (30.4%)
- A housing crisis or housing affordability stress (15.8%)
- Financial difficulties (11.9% )
