‘Desperate’: Rural housing shortage creates Covid risk

Farm owners are isolating Covid-positive workers on their properties as the rural accommodation shortage bites.

A critical housing shortage is affecting the ability of rural health services to find back up staff. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Darren Seiler

A critical housing shortage is affecting the ability of rural residents to isolate if they test positive to Covid-19, and means rural health services have nowhere to house back-up staff, health workers say.

Robinvale District Health Service Covid officer Anita Erlandsen said her health service was “desperately short-staffed” as Covid case numbers increased in the town, and had so far been unable to source back-up staff, in part because there was nowhere to house them.

Three health service staff were in isolation as of Monday following exposure to coronavirus as the service manages 85 active cases – one of the highest rates in the state per head of population.

“We’re trying like the rest of Victoria to get agency staff,” Ms Erlandsen said, but there were “lots of things that go against little rural health services like ours”.

She said Robinvale struggled to match the higher pay and more scenic locations offered by other health services, and didn’t even have accommodation to offer.

“It’s very difficult to get someone to come up as an agency and then not be able to offer them accommodation,” she said.

Meanwhile the health service had just one caravan to offer as emergency accommodation to a population of 7000 to 8800 people if it was difficult for them to isolate at home.

Ms Erlandsen said farm owners had been doing a good job so far of isolating staff from other workers, but there was “a lot of highdensity living” in the town that presented a challenge.

“One three bedroom house in Robinvale will have three families living in it. That’s not unusual,” Ms Erlandsen said.

Robinvale’s situation is not unique. A report released in December by Rural Councils Victoria found there was a critical housing shortfall in many rural communities.

A Victorian Government spokesperson said accommodation was available for “eligible, vulnerable Victorians to safely manage their isolation or quarantine period in metropolitan and regional centres, including the Mildura area (the largest regional centre to Robinvale)”.