Employers key in on housing crisis

LORNE businesses are offering accommodation alongside job opportunities in a bid to entice staff as a regional shortage continues.

Business owners are taking the proactive step to address the worker housing crisis that they have identified as the number one barrier to ramping up their capacity.

Local businesspeople fear the problem could worsen in coming months as summer demand picks up if there are no short-term solutions to the problem.

Live Wire Park owner Luke Nisbett is among the employers who is providing housing options to full-time staff in a desperate bid to boost his workforce.

“Traditionally we used to hire local kids, and we still do,” he said.

“But as the business has grown we’ve needed more staff, and they’re simply isn’t that pool of people to choose form in Lorne, so we’re having to entice people to come in through accommodation.”

Mr Nisbet said housing at Lorne, along with other coastal towns within a comfortable driving distance to Melbourne, had become so expensive that it was out of reach of the tourism sector’s usual staff demographic.

“The rate people are being paid doesn’t reflect the affordability of the accommodation,” he said.

“There really is nowhere to stay, which has created this drastic problem for affordable housing in places like Lorne.

“In the meantime, we’re stuck with the reality that, not just Live Wire Park, but most businesses having a shortage of staff because there’s nowhere for them to stay.”

Mr Nisbet said businesses needed a fix by summer to attract enough staff to trade at their usual level.

The Surf Coast Shire has been working with local organisations and state authorities on potential solutions since declaring a key worker accommodation crisis last year.