Outer suburban areas such as Brimbank are no longer a haven for low income earners and families struggling to find somewhere affordable to live.
A Council to Homeless Persons analysis of the latest department of health and human services rent data shows there were only 26 two-bedroom rentals affordable to a Newstart recipient in Brimbank during the December 2017 quarter – and no one-bedroom offerings. This is compared to 77 two-bedroom and four single-bedroom properties in 2007.
Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith said Brimbank was among a number of outer suburban areas – including Geelong, Frankston, and Wyndham – that experienced the greatest decline in the number of affordable two-bedroom rentals.
“People move further out to chase cheaper rent, but just face fiercer competition from low income earners and young people saving for deposits to buy, from a shrinking pool of low-cost rentals,” she said.
“It is a perfect storm culminating in increased homelessness, and the only solution is to build more social housing.”
Ms Smith says the data is further evidence of the need for more one and two bedroom social housing and should be a wake-up call to those who are opposing the re-development of nine public housing sites around Melbourne.
Charlene Macaulay and Ewen McRae
