Thousands in Gippsland on waiting list for social housing as cost of living crisis bites

The occupants of more than 7,000 households in Gippsland were on a “priority access” waiting list for social housing in March 2024, according to the Gippsland Homelessness Network.

To find social housing you must first be added to the Victorian Housing Register Priority Access list, and a year ago people living in 7,179 residences in Gippsland were on that list.

The homelessness network said that in the 2023/24 financial year 3,920 households in Gippsland accessed what are known as “homelessness entry points”. An entry point is a service that provides initial assessment, planning and support for individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Among those were 469 people who were employed.

The grim statistics reflect a nation in which the right to a secure roof over your head has become an entrenched talking point, as property prices and concomitant rents have soared and people struggle to make ends meet.

A new report by campaign group Everybody’s Home illustrates how the housing crisis is no longer confined to those on lower and middle incomes.

It found that a single person paying the median rental for a unit in Australia ($566 per week) would need to earn more than $130,000 a year (pre-tax) to avoid “rental stress”.

The 30 percent threshold is often used by experts to indicate rental stress.

Someone earning $70,000 before tax would need to spend 52 percent of their net income on rent for a median unit. In Australia the median income is $72,592.

According to the Housing Monitor the weekly median unit rent in East Gippsland is $350 a week, compared to the regional Victoria median price of $380 a week.

A renter paying $350 a week would need to have a gross annual wage of $60,666 to avoid being in rental stress.

The median house rental for East Gippsland is $450 a week.

“Australia’s worsening housing crisis is fuelling the rise in homelessness,” said Maiy Azize from Everybody's Home. “People simply cannot afford insanely high rents week after week – it’s pushing many into housing stress, leading them to sleep in cars or improvised dwellings, and on couches or the streets.”