The Council to Homeless Persons’ (CHP) homelessness heatmap has revealed 3279 people in Brimbank sought help from specialist homelessness services in the 2024–25 financial year, placing the municipality in the second-highest heatmap category.
CHP chief executive Deborah Di Natale said the heatmap exposed how Victoria’s housing crisis was devastating communities, with services lacking the resources to cope with surging demand.
“Every day, services across Victoria are forced to turn people away – not because they don’t need help, but because we don’t have the resources or housing to offer them,” Ms Di Natale said.
“This is the human cost of decades of underinvestment in social housing.”
While the number of people seeking help in Brimbank has decreased, dropping slightly from 3312 in the 2023-24 financial year, Ms Di Natale said the geographic spread of the crisis reinforced Infrastructure Victoria’s call for 60,000 new social homes over the next 15 years.
“We need the Victorian government to commit to lifting Victoria’s amount of social housing to meet the national average. But we also need immediate investment in the services that keep people safe today, particularly in these growth areas where demand is skyrocketing,” she said.
While metropolitan Melbourne accounts for 61 per cent of those seeking help, or 59,524 people, CHP said regional Victoria shoulders a disproportionate burden in demands for homelessness services.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data show 105,125 Victorians sought help from specialist homelessness services in 2024-25 – a 2.9 per cent increase.
A state government spokesperson said increasing social housing in Brimbank has been a major part of its social housing programs, receiving significant investment.
“Through the Big Housing Build and other social housing programs, we’ve invested more than $250 million in the Brimbank local government area with 317 homes completed and 195 underway,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re using every lever in our control to house as many people as quickly as possible.”
The state government said its $6.3 billion investment in social and affordable housing is delivering more than 13,300 homes across Victoria, and that it also invests more than $300 million into specialist homelessness services every year.
