By Tyler Wright
The Yarra Ranges may not be afforded the benefits of a funding boost to social housing announced in the recent state budget, a local service says.
It was announced in the 2023/2024 budget, released on Tuesday 23 May, that $134 million will be provided access to housing and homelessness support, with $67.6 million for Housing First responses and supports set to deliver permanent supportive housing responses to people formerly sleeping rough.
But Holy Fools CEO Neal Taylor said the government’s Big Housing Build; a $5.3 billion package set to provide 12,000 social housing properties over four years, will not be seen the Yarra Ranges.
“The problem is that there is no crisis accommodation or emergency accommodation in the Yarra Ranges at all, even if there was, I would say that it would be full all the time. because it’s very difficult for people to move on out of emergency accommodation,” Mr Taylor said.
Mr Taylor said local services are seeing a big strain for goods including food, clothing and blankets, with Holy Fools often referring those in need to housing support service Anchor.
“Anchor itself has only got so much of a budget, I think it’s $160 a day, to house someone, and that’s whoever turns up for them the day,” he said.
“It’s ridiculous.”
According to the Council for Homeless Persons, the wait time for public housing in 16 and a half months for those on the priority wait list.
Mr Taylor said the reality is that wait times are “a lot longer”.
“There are a lot of people that we know who have been on the list, some of them going on 20 years now, waiting for a property,” Mr Taylor said.
However, homelessness services are set to receive $35.9 million in 23/24 as part of the government’s budget spend.
“The other positive was including the funding for services to women and young people and additional health and drug and alcohol support, particularly for those in crisis, but there was no indication in there of any big bills apart from the big housing bill,” Mr Taylor said.
“There was no new revelations about the big housing build, which was disappointing.”
Mr Taylor said Holy Fools is seeing more people are sleeping in cars and at friend’s houses, with people with jobs losing their homes due to rent hikes, injury or sickness.
“There’s a stack of kids who couch surf after having a big argument with mum and dad. That’s a form of homelessness, but when you talk to them, they don’t identify as being homeless,” he said.
“They see that as being the typical old man in the city being on the side of the street as being homeless and not them, and we know that’s now stretching to other people too, who end up in their car and they don’t think they’re homeless.”
Mr Taylor said all levels of government need to work with the community to end homelessness, with this budget only “scratching the surface”.
“It doesn’t seem a commitment to ending this…when you see the budget sort of bit of a lacklustre response to it, it saddens me, but it also frustrates me because then people don’t see it as a priority.
“If the government’s not going to do it, we really need to step up and do it ourselves…. whether that’s some of the community members in the greater Yarra Ranges saying ‘hey, listen, I’ve got a house that that we could start to use for for emergency accommodation.'”
