By Sarah Langmore
Having a stable and affordable home is key to good health, mental health, stability and capacity to live a meaningful life and participate in society. It is not acceptable, in a country as wealthy as Australia, that so many Australians do not have a safe, stable home.
As many of you are experiencing, we have a housing crisis in Melbourne’s west. We don’t have enough housing for our population, so the housing we do have is in demand and expensive. It is possible to get the housing supply we need.
After World War II the Government undertook a huge construction program to ensure that returning soldiers all had a place to live. All that is required is the will of all levels of Government.
We need everyone to have a safe and affordable home, decent incomes and appropriate support so that homelessness will be rare, and where it does occur, brief and quickly resolved.
The Western Homelessness Network, the Network of all the homelessness funded services in Melbourne’s West, will be writing to all Federal election candidates in Melbourne’s west to ask about their commitment to strategies that will end the housing crisis.
To achieve this, we need:
- 40,000 more public and community homes in Melbourne’s west;
- An innovative approach to short to medium term accommodation, that is fast, affordable and sustainable, while we wait for long term housing construction.
- A tax system that is focussed on ensuring everyone has one home, not favouring concessions to the wealthy so that they can buy multiple homes;
- A National plan committing all levels of Government to strategies that will end the housing crisis.
We will publish their responses in The Westsider’s May edition and on our website: nwhn.net.au.
