FEDERAL member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters hosted a meeting last week to address Greater Bendigo\u2019s housing crisis.<\/p>\n
Participating organisations included Haven Homesafe, Ark Justice, The Centre for Non-Violence, and Bendigo Community Health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI organised today\u2019s roundtable because I wanted to hear firsthand the challenges that we have locally,\u201d said Ms Chesters.<\/p>\n
The MP said housing and affordability information received at the Federal level is based upon 2021 census data and out of date.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought let\u2019s get everyone in a room from real estate to homelessness services to tenancy organisations to tell us what\u2019s happening, what are they hearing,\u201d Ms Chesters said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then to tell me what we can do at a federal level to really help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Chesters said she had come away from the discussion with her eyes wide open.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a short-term problem, this is a longer term problem and we have to fundamentally change and urgently work towards solving the housing crisis that we have. Everyone\u2019s affected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The meeting resulted in a task list which Ms Chesters said she\u2019ll use to drive action within the Federal Government.<\/p>\n
Included on this list were suggestions for the increased support social services in Greater Bendigo with operational costs and accessibility.<\/p>\n
CEO of Haven Homesafe, Trudi Ray, said the meeting was an opportunity for stakeholders in Bendigo to unite and find ways to make a collective impact in the community.<\/p>\n
Haven Homesafe has started to see a greater range of demographics accessing their services as affordability has declined.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really not good,\u201d said Ms Ray. \u201cOnly 2.3 per cent of rental properties at the moment can be obtained by people on Job Seeker, so only 2.3 per cent are affordable.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of the issues are new, the currency of it is much more critical now that visibility of it seems to be much more prevalent in terms of what we\u2019re seeing locally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Chesters said the region was going through a perfect storm that had started a generation ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can unpack all of the bad government policies that have led us to being in this crisis, but we now need to look at policy solutions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FEDERAL member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters hosted a meeting last week to address Greater Bendigo\u2019s housing crisis. Participating organisations included Haven Homesafe, Ark Justice, The Centre for Non-Violence, and Bendigo Community Health. \u201cI organised today\u2019s roundtable because I wanted to hear firsthand the challenges that we have locally,\u201d said Ms Chesters. The MP said housing […]<\/p>\n