Max Hatzoglou
The Council to Homeless Persons has called on the federal government to urgently fund social housing as Victoria’s rental crisis worsens with rising prices.
The peak body for homelessness in Victoria is calling on the government to kick start delivery of its election promise of building 20,000 new social houses amid the worsening crisis.
Median rental prices in Brimbank and Melton have risen in recent months, according to Victoria’s March quarter 2022 Rental Report.
In Brimbank, the median rent was $360 in December 2021, rising to $370 in March, while Melton’s media rent rose from $380 to $385 during the same period, according to the report.
Statewide, median rental prices rose by $10 with metropolitan Melbourne rising to $410 per week and regional Victoria rentals rising to $390 per week.
Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith said the rise is causing a higher need for social and affordable housing as rentals become too expensive.
“More people are being pushed beyond breaking point and into homelessness,” she said.
“People will make every other household budget cut before they miss rent – that means skipping meals, shivering through winter with the heating off, or forgoing study and social opportunities.
“People will stay on in unsafe homes rather than leaving, if they can’t see a way to afford rent for their families on their own.”
Tracey Gaudry, chief executive at Deer Park-based CommUnity Plus Services, said the Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre, which is run by CommUnity Plus Services, had recorded a rise in the number of clients at risk of eviction due to increasing rental costs.
“A high percentage of our clients are experiencing severe financial hardship, and increasing rents are causing great difficulties on top of the rising costs of many other living expenses, placing more and more people in our community at risk of homelessness,” she said.
“We believe that the state and federal governments can and need to do more to increase the supply of social and public housing, and to seek to lift the incomes of the most vulnerable people in our community by increasing the rate of JobSeeker.”
