Grimley:need to address housing

Member for Western Victoria Stuart Grimley wants the State Government to address the housing shortage crisis in Western Victoria.

The Victorian leader of Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party has asked the government for action based on only five of 24 western Victorian councils being allocated a minimum commitment of the state’s Big Housing Build program.

Mr Grimley said during visits to Northern Grampians, Yarriambiack and Buloke shires this year, a common theme kept arising.

He said each shire was having problems with a lack of rental housing, residential development and homes to buy.

This was in stark contrast to larger regional areas and metropolitan cities, where huge investment, including from the State Government’s Big Housing Build, of new housing projects was happening.

“As shown on Realestate.com, between these three Local Government Areas, there are only 21 properties available to rent. That includes seven in Ararat and five in St Arnaud,” Mr Grimley said.

“That leaves just nine properties for rent for all the other towns.

“Stawell, a town of more than 6000 people has just one property available for rent.

“This has been a huge issue for the community, with limited accommodation availability for prospective temporary and permanent workers, making it difficult to fill job vacancies.

“The Northern Grampians alone has more than 150 job vacancies that need to be filled, some of which pay more than $100,000 a year.

“Yet due to the distance from major cities and the lack of available housing, these jobs will struggle to be filled.”

Mr Grimley also raised the issue of a dire lack of crisis accommodation for familyviolence survivors and their children.

He said this had been especially relevant for south-west Victoria, where relevant bodies were finding it continuously difficult to find emergency accommodation for their clients.

Mr Grimley called on the government to allocate a portion of the Big Housing Build to rural councils as a matter of urgency to increase rental housing and homes available for purchase.

“We are experiencing a housing crisis across regional Victoria. Our smaller councils that have been struggling for years to get more residents will continue to struggle because they miss out on major funding, including for housing projects,” he said.

“I have 24 councils in my region of western Victoria, with only five getting a guaranteed minimum investment through the Big Housing Build program.

“Don’t get me wrong, the funding for these councils is needed, but so is funding for housing in the 19 others.

“This is so urgent that there has been talk for some councils to become ‘quasi-housing developers’ because they can’t attract private companies to construct housing.

“As many of these councils are struggling financially, it is just another burden they’ll need to carry to grow their area.

“I’m asking the government to commit a minimum guarantee of funding to the smaller LGAS in western Victoria, so they too can have a chance to expand their rate base.”