THE construction of more social housing is the key to addressing the “crisis” of local homelessness, Dunkley MP Peta Murphy says.
Data released last week by Homelessness Australia and housing campaign Everybody’s Home revealed that around 600 people from the Dunkley area are currently homeless.
Ms Murphy said that “our community has a significant problem with homelessness, and the Morrison government needs to do more to address this crisis.”
“The solution to homelessness is a no brainer. For months Labor has been calling on the Morrison government to fund the construction of more social housing. This would help put a roof over the head of Australians who desperately need it,” she said.
“The COVID-19 crisis has made it even clearer just how important safe and affordable housing is. In the last few months, more than 7,000 people sleeping rough or at risk of sleeping rough have been provided with a bed in one of the many empty motel and hotel rooms. The National Cabinet needs to make sure that the homeless Australians we helped at the height of the pandemic are not thrown back on the street in the next few months”.
The figures released last week read that the Dunkley electorate had a social housing shortfall of around 3,000.
At their last meeting, Frankston councillors signalled their intention to advocate for more say in the regulation of the private rooming house market.
They agreed to write to the Premier and state MPs appealing for legislation changes to “empower local government”. Their proposed changes included mandating that private building surveyors notify council and neighbours of a property whose owner has plans for a rooming house development, and making private building surveyors advise council and neighbours of an approval to build prior to works commencing or issuing of an occupancy permit (“Council wants more say on rooming houses”, The Times, 3/8/20).
