The region’s Opposition politicians have amplified their calls on the Victorian Government to address a lack of progress on social housing.
Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell has accused the government of hiding data outlining the number of people on the waiting list for social housing.
Ms Lovell said waiting lists for social housing had previously been published quarterly, but the Andrews Government had failed to publish data for the past two quarters, in September and December last year.
Ms Lovell said the latest data available was now eight months old and numbers would have increased, particularly in flood-affected communities in the Goulburn Valley.
She said statewide lists for new applications reached 55,043 households by June 30 last year, an increase of 20,425 applications, or 59 per cent, over the term of the Andrews Government.
The Opposition says applications with priority status have also increased, up by 20,776 applications or 208 per cent from 9990 in September 2014 to 30,766 in June 2022.
Ms Lovell said changes made by the Andrews Government made it difficult to gauge the increase in need in Shepparton, but as of June 30, 2022, there were 2433 applicants for housing and of those, 1362 had priority status.
Priority status is given to some of Victoria’s most vulnerable people, who are homeless, at risk of recurring homelessness, escaping family violence, living with a disability or have a special housing need.
“The Andrews Labor Government is failing Shepparton’s most vulnerable families, who are being forced to sleep rough whilst the government leaves them to languish on ever-growing waiting lists,” Ms Lovell said.
“The government is purposely hiding the true extent of Greater Shepparton’s social housing crisis by refusing to release the quarterly data and using a creative way to report local data.”
State Member for Shepparton and Coalition counterpart Kim O’Keeffe said the housing crisis had reached a desperate stage.
“We know we’re in desperate need, we don’t have enough,” Ms O’Keeffe said.
“It’s got to a point, almost every second day I’m getting someone contacting me in a really dire situation, which is devastating.”
Ms O’Keeffe said she was working with Housing Minister Colin Brooks to try to find solutions to the crisis.
“He’s been here during the floods and as I said, we’ve had a recent conversation, and I’ll be working on a date in the not too distant future and making sure that our region is really understood, particularly when it comes to housing,” she said.
“The shortage, it’s very broad. We know that rentals are expensive, lack of housing, social housing. There’s so many tiers to it, but we’ve got to work through all of them. Work through the challenges and opportunities.”
The government said addressing social housing waiting lists was at the top of its priority list, which was reflected in its commitment of more than $5.3 billion to the problem.
“Under the Big Housing Build, Greater Shepparton was allocated a $45 million minimum investment guarantee, which has already been exceeded, to create modern, accessible, energy-efficient homes for people who need these most,” a government spokesperson said.
“To date, $70 million has been invested in Greater Shepparton under the landmark program and other social housing programs, to create 201 new homes.”
The government denies it is trying to hide the real extent of the social housing waiting list, but did not quote a number for Greater Shepparton or the Goulburn Valley.
“Wait list numbers between 2014 and 2022 are not comparable because of fundamental changes in the design of the wait list system since 2014,” the spokesperson said.
The government said it would continue to work with Greater Shepparton City Council and community housing agencies to identify options to increase social and affordable housing in the area.