Victoria housing crisis: Social housing left beind in state government’s 800,000 new home goal
A multibillion-dollar plan to help hundreds and thousands of vulnerable Victorians has shown how the state’s planned housing boom is leaving one key demographic out in the cold.
Victoria’s planned housing boom is set to leave social housing behind without billions more in funding from state and federal governments.
Community Housing Industry Association Victoria has today released a $46bn road map to add almost 90,000 homes to support the state’s most vulnerable tenants, alongside analysis showing that just 3.04 per cent of all homes around the state are currently social housing.
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This is the lowest of any state or territory, and includes an estimated 4302 social housing residences increase over the past 10 years.
And the lobby group has warned that as the Allan government ramps up towards its 800,000 new homes to be built in the next-decade goal, the share of Victorian homes available to the most needy tenants will contract to just 2.71 per cent.
CHIA’s modelling shows current funding from state and federal sources is expected to add just 12,057 new social housing residences to the state’s supply by 2034.
With population expected to surge in the interim and an ongoing landlord exodus putting a growing strain on Victoria’s private rental market, government data released in June showed there were about 22,000 fewer homes with rental bonds active this year than last.
On Wednesday, PropTrack released rental vacancy rate data which showed Melbourne and Victoria’s vacancy rates had improved slightly in the past year — but that the capital city’s median rent was still up $40 a week.
CHIA Victoria chief executive Sarah Toohey said the state was now at a “crossroads”.
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“New investments by the state and federal government have started to lift Victoria’s social housing numbers out of the abyss, but without bold action and dedicated long-term funding from governments we will slip back down,” Ms Toohey said.
“With the right funding settings in place, community housing can do much more to shift the dial on the housing crisis and build a future where every Victorian has access to decent, affordable housing.”
CHIA’s road map calls for the federal government to increase the Housing Australia Future Fund Facility’s contributions to the state from $10bn to $50bn, and for the Allan government to increase its Social Housing Growth Fund by an extra $6bn.
By doing so they estimate industry groups could build 89,083 social housing residences in the same time the current government funding would build just 12,000.
CHIA did not have recommendations on where the governments could find savings for the funding, but indicated it should be a priority.
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Originally published as Victoria housing crisis: Social housing left beind in state government’s 800,000 new home goal
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