Lucy has been on the public housing waiting list for decades. Down the road, homes sit empty

At least nine state government-owned houses are sitting empty in a single suburb in Melbourne’s inner west in the midst of the state’s worst housing crisis in decades and years after complaints were raised about empty houses in the area.

The vacant homes in Braybrook have frustrated locals, some of whom have been on the public housing waiting list for decades and are demanding the government act now to lease out the properties.

Braybrook resident Lucy Cuzzupe in front of a vacant state-owned house in her street. Credit: Jason South

It comes nine years after The Age reported that housing advocates were calling for several vacant state-owned residential properties in Braybrook to be redeveloped to tackle Victoria’s surging public housing waiting list, which was about 34,000 applicants in 2015. There are now almost 50,000 applicants on the waiting list.

Lucy Cuzzupe, who survives on a weekly disability pension and has been on the public housing waiting list since 1990, passes the empty Braybrook homes when she walks her dog.

The 53-year-old lives in a private rental in Braybrook despite having her case escalated four years ago for priority public housing due to her disability and the risk posed to her safety by family violence. She said her rental was old, dilapidated and riddled with asbestos.

Each time she has attempted to find a new place to rent, she said she had faced rental discrimination – and rising rents had greatly limited her options.

Some public housing in Braybrook has been vacant for years.Credit: Jason South

On her morning walks around Braybrook, Cuzzupe said she had observed a growing number of government-owned homes, all near each other, being boarded up, fenced off, vandalised and left vacant for years.

“Some of those homes have been empty and without tenants for four years. It doesn’t make sense for them to be empty,” she said.

One of the vacant homes was previously rented by her elderly neighbour, who vacated the property to enter an aged care home.

Cuzzupe said the house had been empty for a year.

“I’ve been in that house and it’s perfectly fine for someone to move in,” she said.

In response to questions from The Age, a Department of Families, Fairness and Housing spokeswoman said eight properties in Braybrook were set to be redeveloped as part of the $2 billion Commonwealth Government Social Housing Accelerator program, announced last June.

But Cuzzupe questioned why it had taken almost a year for any of the homes in Braybrook to be leased out to people who were in desperate need of a new home.

“It’s a joke,” she said. “By the time that kicks in, I’ll be 60.”

Another vacant state-owned home in Braybrook.Credit: Jason South

State government data shows that at March 31 this year, there were 48,620 applicants seeking public or community housing on the Victorian Housing Register.

When The Age visited Braybrook last week, there were nine vacant properties, all owned by the Victorian government. Many of them were older weatherboard homes, with tin roofs and wooden boards nailed to windows. Another was a more modern, brick home which was structurally intact but fenced off.

The government spokesperson said one of the houses in Braybrook was ready to be leased out to a tenant and had already been offered to an applicant on the Victorian Housing Register. Two homes required more significant works before they would be ready to be leased, they said.

“We are housing as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, with more than 7000 households moving into social housing last financial year – an increase of 29 per cent from the previous year,” the spokesperson said.

The number of households that moved into social housing was 5553 in the 2021-22 financial year and 7152 in the 2022-23 financial year, according to the state government.

“The department works hard to ensure properties are tenanted as soon as possible including undertaking the necessary inspection, safety checks and repairs in line with the Residential Tenancies Act before the property is ready for the next renters.”

Victorian Public Tenants Association chief executive Katelyn Butterss said demand for public housing was soaring across the state.

Last year, there was a 94 per cent surge in demand for assistance from the association.

Butterss said there had been a “glaring lack of commitment to growth in public housing” by governments over many years.

“Housing is a human right and everyone deserves the dignity of a home,” she said. “It’s unacceptable that in Australia, in 2024, we cannot achieve this.”

In response to the housing crisis, the Victorian government vowed to deliver an average of 80,000 homes a year over the next decade as part of its $5.3 billion Big Housing Build. However, it is currently falling well short of that target.

In 2023, the construction of just 53,711 houses, flats and townhouses had begun – the lowest annual total since 2013. The latest Housing Industry Association forecast is that in 2024, construction will have started on as few as 52,332 new homes and increase slightly to 55,175 in 2025.

One of nine vacant state-owned empty homes The Age observed in Braybrook.Credit: Jason South

According to the government’s own estimates, Victoria will need to build about 57,000 homes every year just to keep pace with soaring population growth; Melbourne is expected to swell by about 1 million people over the next decade.

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