Thousands of origami houses will cover the steps of Victorian Parliament on Wednesday to illustrate the lack of social housing and investment needed to tackle the homelessness crisis.
Council to Homeless Persons CEO Deborah Di Natale said the 6,000 houses represented the number of public and community homes needed each year for the next decade to undo decades of underinvestment. "Each of these origami houses illustrate the way out of Victoria's housing and homelessness crisis. It is not too big or difficult to solve. We know what works and that's investing in social housing," Ms Di Natale said.
"The soaring cost of housing and other essentials means a job is no longer enough to protect someone from homelessness. The number of employed people seeking homelessness support, mostly women, jumped by 14% in the past year.
"Victoria is languishing at the bottom of the league table when it comes to social housing. Less than 3% of all dwellings are public and community homes. There are more than 58,000 families on the social housing waitlist, many for a decade or more.
"The Victorian government is taking steps in the right direction, with recent funding for frontline services and housing first programs. But this barely scratches the surface of community demand.
"Failing to invest adequately in social housing now will turn Victoria's housing and homelessness crisis into an intergenerational tragedy."
Victorian Homelessness Network spokesperson Rebecca Callahan said: "Each night, more than 30,000 Victorians have no safe place to call home. Women and children are trapped in violent homes because there is nowhere safe to go. Others are forced to move from couch to couch or sleep rough.
"None of this is inevitable and the solutions are right in front of us. By building 60,000 additional, appropriate social homes and implementing the 10 Year National Housing and Homelessness Plan, we can turn the homelessness crisis around and ensure everybody has a safe place to call home."
The Houses at Parliament event is an initiative of the Victorian Homelessness Network in collaboration with CHP. It will run from 1pm until 2pm on Wednesday, 31 July ahead of Homelessness Week (August 5 – 11). Ms Di Natale will speak alongside Jason Russell, who has lived experience of homelessness.
