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More people have sought the assistance of homelessness services in Victoria than in any other state.
Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has revealed that the top 10 months for people in housing stress visiting specialist homelessness services all belong to Victoria, with record-breaking levels of homelessness service visits seen in five of the past six months.
Compared to NSW and Queensland, Victoria has 30 per cent more people seeking help from homelessness services due to housing stress.
Deborah Di Natale, CEO of the Council to Homeless Persons, stated that Victoria must “act urgently, build more social housing” in order to combat housing insecurity.
With just 2.8 per cent of Victorian dwellings being public or community housing, Victoria has the lowest proportion of social housing in Australia.
“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,” said Di Natale.
“Rising rents and low vacancy rates are pushing people to the brink of homelessness,” she said. “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.”
At the last census, homelessness in Victoria had risen 24 per cent, with 30,000 Victorians homeless on census night 2021.
This was almost 6,000 more than the previous census in 2016, when 24,800 Victorians were counted as homeless.
According to the Council to Homeless Persons, there were 58,459 applications for public and community housing on the waitlist as of March 2024.
“While some economic indicators show inflation is moderating, it’s clear from these figures the housing crisis is actually getting worse,” Di Natale said.
“The Victorian government must make building more social housing its number one priority,” the CEO concluded.
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