By Alesha Capone
THOUSANDS of disadvantaged and low-income residents, desperate for a home, are on public housing waiting lists in Sunshine and Footscray – some for up to a decade.
Last week, the number of applicants listed at the Office of Housing’s Sunshine and Footscray/Flemington branches was released.
At June this year, there were 3786 people waiting for a home listed at the Sunshine office and 1284 at the Footscray/Flemington office – up from the March quarter figures.
Public housing lists are broken up into two sections, one for those classified as requiring early housing, like the homeless and disabled.
Everyone else with a low income is listed on the ‘wait turn’ list.
In Sunshine, there were 2800 people on the ‘wait turn’ list and almost 1000 requiring early housing.
In Footscray, there were more than 860 on the ‘wait turn’ list and 417 needing early housing.
The Office of Housing’s Sunshine branch includes families waiting for homes in all of Brimbank, plus parts of Maribyrnong and Wyndham.
The Footscray/Flemington office has the waiting list for parts of Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay.
At the Braybrook and Maidstone Neighbourhood House, an advocacy and advice service for public housing tenants is available, called the Braybrook Maidstone Sunshine Public Tenants Association.
Chairwoman Vivienne Conn said “with waiting lists, there’s not much you can do, they are so huge it’s just terrible”.
“Generally, on the waiting list, you can wait 10 years in this area,” she said.
“It’s not someone saying, ‘I don’t want that, I’ll wait,’ it’s the first offer.”
Ms Conn said the early housing applicants wait on “very long lists too” and depending on their circumstances some waited two years for a home.
Ms Conn said many people waiting for public housing were paying high rents in Braybrook and Maidstone.
“A lot of people in this area are going to Melton, where the rent is lower,” she said.
Ms Conn said after years of various governments selling public housing land to private developers, there was a lack of homes.
“The Office of Housing does everything they can and do a very good job, but they can only do what they can with the stock they’ve got,” she said.
The State Government recently announced 89 new public housing properties would be allocated in Brimbank, Wyndham, Melton and Hume by June next year, plus 51 in Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay.
