We can do more on social housing

-OPINION PIECE

BY MICHAELA SETTLE, MEMBER FOR BUNINYONG

 

AT the age of 47, I was unemployed, newly separated with two young children in tow, and looking for a home. It was hard.

A decade later, for anyone in the same situation, it’s become even harder. There is a housing crisis in regional Victoria and it effects many more families and young people than you might think.

The housing crisis is not just about homelessness. There are many layers to this issue.

In Ballarat and across our region there are hundreds of people living under rental stress; defined as paying more than 30 per cent of your income to rent alone.

In some places, there just aren’t any places to rent.

Fixing the housing affordability crisis demands innovative solutions. And I believe the answer lies in partnerships.

Government will need to work with developers, local government and community housing groups to find the answers.

Golden Plains Shire recently published research on housing affordability in the Shire.

The research showed that in the 12 months to June 2020, less than one per cent of all rental listings would have been affordable for a household on a low income with Smythesdale and Bannockburn identified as having the highest rates of rental stress.

The report identified only eight social housing properties in the whole Shire.

State government and local council will need to work together to identify available land. And we can work with developers to make sure more affordable houses are being built.

We may need to try out new ideas like inclusionary zoning which gives incentives to developers to build a proportion of houses in new estates that are more affordable like one and two-bedroom dwellings.

It will always be important for government to support public housing and the Big Build is underway with recent house purchases in Sebastopol.

But now is also the time to create new partnerships and new ideas because everyone deserves a roof over their head.