My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing, and the action I seek from the minister is to urgently commit to ending homelessness here in Victoria.
Homelessness has risen over the past five years. At a time when we should be ending homelessness Victorians are now facing the biggest housing crisis ever.
Rents and the cost of living are at an all-time high, and more and more people are being pushed into homelessness.
Thirty thousand people are experiencing homelessness every single night. Public housing waiting lists continue to rise – up to 120,000 people now.
In the Prahran electorate hundreds of people are without a home on any given night, in unsafe or insecure accommodation or sleeping rough.
Homelessness is the number one social justice issue facing the Prahran community. The impacts on people’s lives are devastating, and just as devastating is the fact that all of this has been preventable.
In a generation housing has become seen as a commodity, not as a home.
We are seeing fewer public housing homes in Victoria than we had 10 years ago, and under this government we are just seeing more of the same housing policies that we have had in the past.
Now, with vast swathes of public housing land being privatised, things need to change.
The Greens have put forward a bill, a vision, to end homelessness by the end of the decade that makes housing a human right, that has targets and reporting for building more public housing and that has targets for funding homelessness services.
Everyone deserves a safe and secure place to call home, and we know the most effective way to end homelessness is to provide enough long-term, secure housing for everyone who needs it.
Just like with public health, just like with public education, governments have a responsibility to make sure everyone who needs one has access to a public home.
Response from the Minister for Housing
I thank the member for Prahran for his advocacy for improving homelessness and housing outcomes in Victoria.
We know that homelessness can have a profound impact on a person’s overall wellbeing. That is why, in our response to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Homelessness in Victoria, the Allan Labor Government committed to a long-term, strategic approach across five pillars to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.
These pillars are:
- people are supported quickly to access and sustain housing;
- people are connected to the right mix, sequence and intensity of housing and support that is proportionate and tailored to their needs;
- all parts of the social service system share responsibility for achieving outcomes;
- First Peoples’ homelessness services are self-determined; and
- the homelessness system has the capability to support the delivery of contemporary programs.
The Allan Labor Government’s investments are putting these long-term strategic directions into action, most recently through investment of a further $197 million over four years through the 2024-25 State Budget in homelessness and tenancy supports to break the cycle of homelessness. This is boosting investment in housing with support programs, and support services for people experiencing homelessness, including:
- expanding the Journey to Social Inclusion program over four years, to address rough sleeping;
- targeting support to address demand for services providing support and accommodation to young people and women experiencing homelessness; and
- continuing the Homes for Families program to provide a Housing First response to families experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
We are pursuing these directions in partnership with the homelessness, housing, and related sectors through the Ministerial Homelessness Reform Advisory Group which provides advice to government on the best way to structure and deliver homelessness services to reduce homelessness.
We know that to address homelessness, we need to invest in safe, affordable, and appropriate housing. Currently, Victoria leads the way in housing investment. Our unprecedented recent investment of over $8 billion in social and affordable housing is delivering more and better housing for Victorians with mental illness, victim survivors of family violence, Aboriginal Victorians and people living in regional Victoria. This includes the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build, the $1 billion Regional Housing Fund, the $1 billion Affordable Housing Investment Program, and $1 billion in seed funding for the Social Housing Growth Fund through Homes for Victorians.
Having a home near family, friends and social infrastructure is an important part of everyone’s life, but we know it has been harder to achieve for many in our community. In September 2023 we released Victoria’s ambitious Housing Statement, which makes a bold commitment to boost housing supply and affordability by building 800,000 new homes across the state over the next 10 years. This builds on the suite of landmark investments in social housing, which are already delivering impacts with allocations to social housing increasing by 29 per cent from 2021-22 to 2022-23 (Source: Social Housing Allocations, Homes Victoria webpage).
Victoria is also committed to working with our Commonwealth counterparts to create better outcomes for vulnerable Victorians. From 1 July 2024, a new National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness will replace the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. The national agreement supports the delivery of public housing and core homelessness, family violence and housing support services. Victoria is committed to working with the Commonwealth to maximise growth of social and affordable housing. The $496.5 million investment through the Social Housing Accelerator will build up to 769 homes for Victorians who need them. Further, the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund aims to support up to 20,000 new social and 10,000 new affordable homes nationally over five years, including housing to support those in acute need.
I thank the member for Prahran for his question and appreciate his advocacy on behalf of his constituents and the broader Victorian community.
