By XAVIER SMERDON
THE State Government has fought back at claims that public housing in the West is in crisis mode and unable to service the booming outer suburbs.
Member for Altona, Jill Hennessy said the number of people waiting for housing at the Footscray and Sunshine Offices of Housing had risen by 3.5 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.
“In almost 12 months, the Baillieu Government has done nothing to support Victorians who need public housing,” Ms Hennessy said.
“And as a result we have seen more people in Hobson’s Bay and Wyndham waiting for public housing.
“This means there are now 5134 people waiting for housing at these two offices alone.”
But Minister for Housing Wendy Lovell told Star the number of people waiting for housing was still less than it was under the previous government.
“This is just another example of Jill Hennessy trying to spread fear,” Ms Lovell said.
“We actually have 417 less applicants on the waiting list than there were under Labor.
“We have had a slight rise recently but we’ve actually done a lot of work to get the list down.”
Ms Lovell denied claims that the western suburbs were being neglected. “I am absolutely dedicated to the western suburbs, I come from Williamstown originally,” she said.
“I really want to see the West prosper and I witnessed the neglect of the West for too long under Labor.”
Ms Lovell said that $528 million was being spent on obtaining 16,000 new public houses and the north western metropolitan region would receive 432 of those houses.
