New data has revealed Victoria has more people in housing stress than any other state or territory, sparking urgent calls to build more social housing.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data reveals the top 10 months on record for people in housing stress visiting specialist homelessness services all belong to Victoria.
It found that Victoria has about 30% more people in housing stress seeking help from homelessness services than NSW or Queensland.
Victoria also has the lowest amount of social housing as a proportion of total housing stock in Australia, with just 2.8% of dwellings being public or community housing.
“These unprecedented levels of housing stress will increase homelessness unless we act urgently to build more social housing,” said Council to Homeless Persons CEO, Deborah Di Natale.
“Victoria is desperately behind the rest of the country on public and community housing, with at least 6,000 new homes needed each year for a decade as a bare minimum.
“While some economic indicators show inflation is moderating, it’s clear from these figures the housing crisis is actually getting worse.
“Rising rents and low vacancy rates are pushing people to the brink of homelessness.
“Victoria’s failure to provide the basic human right of housing is leaving more people with no choice but to seek help from already-stretched homelessness services.
“The Victorian government must make building more social housing its number one priority,” she said.
Earlier this month, AIHW also released its long-term analysis of rough sleeping in Victoria, which revealed that fewer than 2-in-10 people seeking homelessness help have secured social housing.
It found that just 2,631 of the 19,868 rough sleepers (13%) who received support between 2016 and 2018 were in public or community housing by the time their support wrapped up.
Some 8,702 people continued sleeping rough or returned to it during the period 2019-2021.
Productivity Commission data has previously revealed the slow growth in social housing. There were 81,083 dwellings in 2023, up from 80,146 the year before and 78,917 in 2021.
“Rough sleepers are among the most vulnerable people in our community. It is unacceptable that fewer than two in 10 people are offered social housing,” Ms Di Natale said.
“Meanwhile, we’ve got more than 58,000 families that spend year after year on the waitlist for social housing.
“People are trapped in overcrowded and unsafe accommodation, sleeping on couches, in vehicles or makeshift camps.
“The cost of not acting, to our health and community services and the justice system, is so much higher than investing in the solutions that we know work – building social homes and investing in frontline services.”
