Damning new figures have revealed Victorians are increasingly being turned away from homelessness services without the accommodation they need, as social housing spending was cut by nine per cent.
The Productivity Commission's Report on Government Services, released today, shows Victoria remains last in the nation for proportion of social housing, and well below the national average.
It comes as the OECD this month joined the call for Australia to increase its social housing.
Council to Homeless Persons CEO Deborah Di Natale said the statistics reveal a state government reducing social housing spending during a generational crisis.
"Over a third of people seeking accommodation from homelessness services walked away without it. That's thousands of Victorians who are in families, are women escaping violence and young people, who are being turned away each month with nowhere to go," Ms Di Natale said.
"The Victorian Government spent $2.16 billion on social housing in 2024-25, which was a nine per cent decrease from the previous year. Cutting spending during the worst housing crisis in living memory is utterly staggering.
"Victoria is dead last of every state and territory for spending on social housing per person.
"This is despite Victoria having the highest number of people seeking support from a stretched specialist homelessness sector. One third of people seeking homelessness assistance in Australia are in Victoria, yet we have the lowest proportion of social housing in the country at just 2.88 per cent.
"The Victorian Government spent just 1.4 per cent of its total expenditure on social housing last year, in the same year Infrastructure Victoria made increasing social housing the No.1 recommendation in Victoria's 30 Year Infrastructure Strategy.
"People who desperately need public housing are spending years on the waiting list with devastating consequences. A quarter of households in greatest need waited 38 months or longer for public housing."
"The reduction in social housing investment is a government policy failure, pure and simple. Victoria has the resources to fix this crisis. What we need is the political will to build the homes Victorians desperately need."
Ms Di Natale said the continuing shift in investment away from public housing to community housing was also concerning.
"In the nine years from 2016 to 2025, there was a net increase of only 36 public homes. Just 36 homes in nearly a decade, while the crisis deepened.”
Over the same time period, the community housing sector has grown by 5,389 - from 14,236 homes in 2016 to 19,625 in 2025 (a 38 per cent increase).
"An effective social housing system needs both public and community housing. Public housing charges lower rents than community housing and provides more secure tenure for residents with the greatest need, including those with complex support needs,” Ms Di Natale said.
One positive from the Productivity Commission figures was that the specialist homelessness services continued to excel at supporting people who are able to access services before falling into homelessness.
Of the people who sought assistance from Victorian services because they were at risk of homelessness, 94.4 per cent were able to keep their home.
Despite only representing 1.2 per cent of the Victorian population, 13.8 per cent of homelessness service clients were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. A further 16.4 per cent were born in non-main English speaking countries.
Key figures:
* 34.2% of people seeking accommodation from homelessness services in Victoria walked away without it (second worst in Australia)
* Victorian Government spending on social housing decreased 9% from $2.36 billion to $2.16 billion
* Victoria spent $308.61 per person on social housing, well below the national figure of $397.47 per person
* Only 2.88% of Victorian households are in social housing; the lowest in Australia
* Net increase of only 36 public homes in 10 years (2016-2025)
* 25% of households in greatest need waited 38 months or longer for public housing
* 94.4% of people at risk of homelessness kept their home when they accessed prevention services
* 13.8% of homelessness service clients were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (vs 1.2% of population)
Contact details:
Matt Coughlan
matt@hortonadvisory.com.au
0400 561 480
Kathleen Ferguson
kathleen@hortonadvisory.com.au
0421 522 080
