Vinnies NSW has called for an urgent increase in social housing.
More than 100,000 people are on the state’s social housing waitlist, with many facing homelessness in the meantime.
This includes about 1,200 in the Newcastle region, another 960 in Lake Macquarie, 619 in Maitland, 205 in Cessnock, and 135 in Port Stephens.
On World Homeless Day today (Thursday 10 October), St Vincent de Paul Society’s chief executive, Jack de Groot, said it was self-evident that more housing would help address the chronic problem.
“But this isn’t translating into enough concrete action on the ground,” he said.
“The NSW government has a building plan, but we need to urgently ramp up that and take major action to house our growing population.
“That’s why Vinnies has launched Build Homes, Build Hope – a new campaign calling on the government to build an extra 5,000 social housing properties per year for the next decade.”
Social housing is rental housing funded by government and provided by government or non-government organisations for those who are unable to secure suitable accommodation in the private market.
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