We all need a home

EARLIER this year locals were given a very visible reminder of Geelong’s homeless community when a few members set up camp in the Little Malop St mall.

The rough sleepers attracted a lot of attention, basing themselves in the middle of Geelong’s CBD during peak holiday and tourist season.

Eventually they moved on, and so did most people’s lives without the daily reminder that there are people in Geelong who battle every day to afford even basic food and shelter.

But the fact remains that, as Geelong’s population continues to grow, the number of locals struggling to put a roof over their heads is also rising all the time.

If you need a reminder, just take a look at the latest Department of Health and Human Services statistics that reveal the region’s social housing waitlist has ballooned while the number of affordable rental properties across Greater Geelong has hit a record low.

Figures to June, 2019 show there were a mere 266 rentals in Greater Geelong that the department classified as affordable — an affordable property is one that requires its tenant to pay less than 30 per cent of their income on rent.

That’s 266 affordable rentals for a population of more than 250,000. While not everyone who lives in the region is a renter, the ratio is still far from ideal.

What is so concerning about the dearth of affordable rental properties is that it has become so common for people to need to use more than 30 per cent of the weekly wage on basic housing. These are not the extreme cases sleeping under cardboard in the mall, but everyday people who — if the situation doesn’t improve — could be on their way to living on the streets. And with the social housing waitlist blowing out to almost 3000 applicants across the Barwon region, support services are being stretched to the limit as well.

These latest figures are a warning sign of what could be around the corner. The mall won’t be the only public space affected if we don’t do something to arrest this trend.