Every new property development in Victoria should include a mandatory quota of social housing, according to advocates for homeless people who have released new analysis showing spikes in homelessness across the regions and outer Melbourne.
The report by the Council to Homeless Persons compared data from the 2021 census with the previous survey in 2016. It found the electorate of South Barwon, which takes in parts of greater Geelong, had the biggest rise in people experiencing homelessness in that period – a jump of 465%.
South Barwon has also seen a tenfold increase in people living in boarding houses since 2016. The rise is not only due to an increase in the number of homeless people, but also more accurate data collection that properly counts people in a broader range of situations, particularly those living in rooming and boarding houses.
The electorate of Melton, on Melbourne’s western fringe, also had a large increase over the five years to 2021, with the total number of homeless people rising by 134%.
The rate of homelessness in Victoria increased by five points over that period, from 42 to 47 people per 10,000. There were 122,494 people estimated to be homeless around Australia on census night in 2021.
The report comes days after Guardian Australia revealed new data that shows where people were living immediately prior to seeking housing support, with local government areas on the outer ring of Melbourne, including Brimbank, Casey and Wyndham, emerging as hotspots for people falling into homelessness.
Deborah Di Natale, the chief executive of the Council to Homeless Persons, said the Victorian government’s recent commitments to building social housing were welcome, “but that is not enough in terms of the decades of neglect we’ve had here in homelessness”.
“What we need is a long-term plan,” she said.
Victoria’s pool of social housing has grown by just 74 units in four years despite the government embarking on a multibillion-dollar “big housing build”, while the social housing waitlist has grown by about 45%, with 67,985 households on the register in March.
Di Natale called on the state and federal governments to act further on housing support, including bringing in inclusionary zoning, which can include social housing quotas for new developments as well as developer taxes to pay for the construction of social and affordable homes.
“We would like the Victorian government to be having a discussion with the construction industry about inclusionary zoning, so that some income is coming in, in terms of the housing build across decades,” Di Natale said.
In March last year, the Andrews government announced but then abruptly scrapped plans to impose a 1.75% levy on new developments of more than three dwellings to pay for the construction of thousands of social and affordable homes.
The plans were dumped after two weeks following public backlash from the building and property sectors. This was despite the government claiming they had reached a deal on the reforms, with the treasurer, Tim Pallas, attributing the plans’ demise to “negative” industry response and the spread of “misinformation” as part of a “mischievous” scare campaign.
Victoria’s deputy premier and planning minister have since begun work on a planning package aimed at boosting housing supply, which is set to be announced in coming months.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, has said this package could include incentives for developers to “embed affordable housing in each of the new developments that they make”.
However, such a move will likely face opposition from the powerful Property Council of Australia, which also opposed the dumped social housing levy.
Cath Evans, the Property Council of Australia’s Victorian executive director, said mandatory inclusionary zoning was “a tax on at-market dwellings – often countering the policy objectives of providing more affordable housing”.
“The property industry stands ready to work productively with governments in bringing our capabilities to bear to build more social housing stock, but mandatory inclusionary zoning is not the way to do it,” she said.
Guardian Australia understands the government is also considering stripping councils of their planning powers in an effort to fast-track developments, as well as increasing ground lease arrangements, which involve handing over public land to a consortium of developers and community housing providers on long-term leases.
