Research released today by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) has dramatically increased projections of social housing need in Victoria over the next 20 years.
The AHURI report forecasts that by 2036, there will be a need for an additional 127,500 public or community housing properties in Greater Melbourne, and a further 38,500 public or community housing properties in the rest of the State. A total of 166,000 homes.
Australia-wide, the forecast need is 727,300 properties.
These figures are a significant increase to the forecast calculated by Infrastructure Victoria only three years ago.
Infrastructure Victoria’s 30 Year Strategy, released in 2016, forecast a need for an additional 30,000 homes over 30 years. Today’s AHURI report, Social housing as infrastructure: rationale, prioritisation and investment pathway, increased this state-wide forecast to 166,000 homes. This represents a 453 per cent increase in need.
The Victorian Government has committed to build an additional 1,000 public housing properties over the next four years.
While this is welcome, it is nowhere near enough.
We are calling on the Premier and Minister Wynne to increase the number of houses being built to address the clear demand.
Victoria is lagging behind every other State and Territory. We have the lowest proportion of public and community housing as a percentage of all housing stock, at only 3.4 per cent where the national average is 4.4 per cent. Victoria also has the lowest per capita spend on social housing nationwide, at $82.94 per head, this represents less than half the national average of around $166 per head.
Executive Officer of the Victorian Public Tenants Association, Mark Feenane, said:
“Enough is enough. Homelessness figures in Victoria are skyrocketing and our public housing stock is dwindling away.
“Governments have a financial and moral obligation to ensure affordable and accessible housing is available, and sufficient to meet community need.
“The findings released today are a stark reminder of the urgent need to do more to address the real, urgent and growing need for housing for Victorians.”