By NICOLE VALICEK
THE number of people on the public housing waiting list in the North West Metro area has reached nearly 4000.
The scale of Victoria’s public housing crisis was revealed after the Victorian Government published its figures for December 2012.
According to the data, the Sunshine office, which services the City of Melton, has the largest number of people waiting for housing in the North West Metro area.
The data revealed that 2849 people in the Sunshine area are waiting for housing, with 1054 people in the early housing wait list.
It also means there was a 5.1 per cent increase of people waiting for a house in the December quarter.
Melton State Labour MP Don Nardella said the blow out of housing waiting figures in Victoria, and the Sunshine region was a “disgrace”.
“An additional 685 families have been added to the Victorian public housing waiting list in the past three months to December 2012, bringing the total to over 37, 000,” Mr Nardella said.
A Victorian Public Tenants Association spokesperson said more needs to be done to effectively reduce the public housing wait list in the long term, particularly in the area of new developments.
“It would be valuable to have a more detailed analysis of the figures to help identify areas for immediate improvement and to be able to better tackle the problem at the local level,” the spokesperson said.
“Further Government investment in public housing and new construction is required to meet Victoria’s desperate need for suitable, affordable housing for its most vulnerable citizens.”
