Rental crisis

By Kath Gannaway
THE Saint Vincent De Paul Society has called on the Federal Government to make affordable housing in the Yarra Valley a priority.
Jim Joyce is social justice officer with the welfare organisation which, along with ANCHOR crisis accommodation in Lilydale, works at the coal-face of homelessness and poverty in the Valley.
His organisation handed out more than $100,000 in welfare last year to assist 1500 individuals and he says high rents are to blame.
In a letter to the Mail, Mr Joyce said about 70 per cent of assistance was directly or indirectly due to people’s inability to maintain high weekly rent payments. With a shortage of private rental properties sending rents skyrocketing, and a shortage of public housing, Mr Joyce said government at all levels must do more.
He said people in all types of rented housing, from caravan parks to public and private accommodation, were struggling to make ends meet.
“Some privately rented houses have up to eight residents in them,” he said.
Ren Garry, acting manager of Anchor in Lilydale, said they have an average of 19 inquiries a week from individuals or families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. On an allowance of just $88 a day for crisis accommodation, they can usually place just one ‘inquiry’ a day.
While Ms Garry says Anchor does its best to help the people who land on their doorstep every day, the reality is there is simply not enough money and, in the long-term, not enough accommodation to meet the demand.
“We try to make our allocation work as hard as we can but there are times when we just can’t provide that roof for everyone,” she said.
“Homelessness ties in with everything else that people are experiencing. Without stable accommodation it puts a lot of other strains on families and individuals in terms of being able to achieve goals .”
McEwen MP Fran Bailey said the key to families being able to afford housing was employment, which she said had dropped in McEwen from 7.1 per cent 10 years ago to 3.8 per cent.
Ms Bailey said the Federal Government had contributed $4.7 billion to the states over the past five years to meet its responsibility to assist with affordable public and community housing.
“Under the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement, the states are required to increase private sector involvement in public and community housing, in order to expand the supply of housing,” she said.
“As well, since 2000, the Government has delivered $5.9 billion through the First Home Owners Scheme and over $2 billion a year has been provided in rent assistance for families in the private rental market.”
Seymour MP Ben Hardman said the State Government is acutely aware of the urgent need to provide more public housing in the Yarra Valley and across the state.
“That is why at the last election we committed a further $60 million to acquire 350 new units of social housing across Victoria,” he said.
He says the opening last year of the 22 unit development in Bradshaw Drive, Healesville, added to 610 public housing units available across the Shire of Yarra Ranges.
Mr Joyce says the reality is there is still not enough being done quickly enough and called for investment in programs and infrastructure which would make realistic rentals available to everyone.