Victoria has the nation’s lowest share of social housing, accounting for only 3% of total homes.

This is far lower than the national average of 4.2%, which is considered low by global standards.

The Guardian reported this year that Victoria’s homelessness crisis is the worst in the country and continues to deteriorate.

“Victoria still has the lowest proportion of social housing out of all states and territories, and the public housing waitlist was 60,708 applications long in December”, The Guardian’s Cait Kelly wrote.

“At the last census, 30,660 people were recorded as homeless, about five times the national average”.

A recent report from the Council for Homeless Persons revealed that homelessness services saw a 14% jump in employed Victorians seeking help 2022-23.

“In total, 12,150 employed people sought homelessness assistance in 2022-23, an increase of 14% since 2020-21, according to the report, which used data provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare”, The Guardian reported.

“More people than ever before in Victoria who are employed are seeking support of homelessness services”.

Victoria’s latest Rental Report has been released and shows that the state recorded a sharp decline in active rental bonds in the year to March 2024, implying that the total stock of rental homes shrank:

“At the end of the March quarter 2024, the total number of active bonds held in Victoria was 658,106. This is 2.3% lower than for the March quarter 2023”, the Rental Report says.

“On average, the number of active bonds has increased by 1.8% annually over the past 5 years, and 3.1% annually over the past 10 years”.

“Over the past year, active bonds (as recorded at the end of the March quarter 2024) are 2.7% lower in metropolitan Melbourne and by 0.8% lower in regional Victoria”.

“On average over the past 5 years, the number of active bonds has increased by 1.9% in metropolitan Melbourne and 1.0% in regional Victoria”, the Report says.

The Rental Report also showed that Melbourne rents soared by 4.6% over the March quarter to be 14.6% higher year-on-year:

The decline in Victorian rentals come at the same time as Victoria’s population ballooned by 186,500 people in 2023, driven by 160,200 net overseas migration:

According to official state government projections, Victoria’s population will grow from 6.5 million in 2018 to 11.2 million in 2056.

Melbourne’s population will grow from 5.0 million in 2018 to 9.0 million in 2056.

All of Victoria’s future population growth will come from net overseas migration, both directly as migrants arrive off the plane and via migrants having children (counted as natural increase):

Victoria’s homelessness epidemic will never be resolved as long as population growth exceeds the capacity of housing and support services.

With the state’s population expected to grow like an uncontrolled lab experiment due to mass immigration, thousands more Victorians will be forced to live in shared housing or on the streets.