The Victorian Greens have called on the Andrews Government to confront the biggest social justice issue facing the state – homelessness – by building 80,000 new homes over the next 12 years.
With countries across the world like Finland now realising that the most effective solution to homelessness is by creating more public housing, there is no time to wait before getting on with an immediate expansion of government funded housing.
Under the Greens plan, the Government would create 40,000 new and refurbished public housing homes over the next six years to alleviate the public housing waiting list, which recently hit over 80,000 people.
The Government would then need to create another 40,000 houses over the following six years to ensure that people who need access to public housing will be housed immediately, preventing the waiting list from building up again.
Leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha Ratnam, said homelessness is the number one social justice issue in Victoria and that the time to act is now.
As stated by Leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha Ratnam MLC:
“Having a roof over your head is a basic human right and yet tens of thousands of Victorians remain on public housing waiting lists.
“We’ve ended up in this homelessness crisis because successive Labor and Liberal governments have refused to build more public housing and instead have only tinkered around the edges of the problem for years.
“We want to create a society where everyone has a safe and secure place to call home.
“We need long-term investment in houses over the next 12 years to ensure that Victorians don’t continue to be left out on the streets.
“The well-being and safety of Victorians shouldn’t be a waiting game.”
