New analysis of that census data by the Council to Homeless Persons shows homelessness more than doubled in some parts of the state. The data includespeople living on the street or in cars,in boarding houses,temporary accommodation or severely overcrowded dwellings.
Council to Homeless Persons CEO Deborah Di Natale said the data reflected a growing problem but also uncovered previously hidden cases because the census took place during a COVID-19 lockdown,when homeless people were offered emergency accommodation in hotels,making them easier to identify.
“These numbers are alarming,” Di Natale said. “On any given night,we’ve got 30,000 people who are experiencing homelessness and that figure is just not acceptable.”
The census data is almost two years old,but Di Natale said the problem had not improved,based on demand for her organisation’s frontline services and the growing public housing waiting list,which blew out to a record 58,131 applications in March.
The biggest increase in homelessness was in the electorate of South Barwon,which covers part of Geelong and the Surf Coast,where it jumped from 148 people in 2016 to 838 in 2021,driven by a 10-fold increase in people living in rooming and boarding houses,where bedrooms are rented out by individual residents.
Another four of the 10 fastest-growing electorates were regional:Eureka,in Ballarat (up 113 per cent);Bendigo East (107 per cent);Mildura (96 per cent);and Morwell (85 per cent).