Public Houses sit empty in Korumburra

FOLLOWING concern from locals, the State Government is being urged to explain why public housing is sitting empty in South Gippsland while people are desperate for a roof over their head.

Figures released by the Victorian Housing Register (VHR) in December 2022, and reported by The Sentinel Times in April this year, cite that 212 people across Korumburra and Leongatha are on the public housing wait list with only 56 properties available. 

With an average wait time of nearly two years for those on the urgent public housing category list.  

Despite these figures, a concerned Korumburra local has watched as two units have been built and were completed in December 2022, and yet are still sitting vacant six months later. 

The Nationals Member for Gippsland South, Danny O’Brien has called on the Minister for Housing for answers. 

Speaking in Parliament, Mr O’Brien said his office has recently received an unprecedented amount of calls querying why social housing properties right across South Gippsland appear to be being left to sit vacant.

“I am calling on the Minister to explain why I keep getting reports and requests from my constituents about empty public housing in Gippsland,” Mr O’Brien said.

“In the last six months or more in particular, I have been receiving reports from people who are concerned that public housing is sitting vacant at a time when we have a significant waiting list for people looking for public housing and there is also pressure on our private housing sector, which of course is putting downward pressure on the public housing market.

“I have reports of vacant homes in Sale, Foster and Korumburra just in the last few months and each time we have followed them up there has been either a reason or an excuse from the department.”

Mr O’Brien said he understood that it was reasonable for houses to be vacant for brief periods of time while there is a changeover in tenants, when there is the death of a tenant, when there are repairs being undertaken or of course when there is construction. 

But with the public housing waitlist continuing to balloon he wanted assurances that there were no unnecessary delays in getting a roof over vulnerable Victorian’s heads.

“I would like to know what the current number of vacant public housing properties in Gippsland is, what the current time period is that homes are vacant, what the current maintenance backlog is for public housing in Gippsland and indeed what the current waiting list is for the Gippsland region.”

The Minister’s office was contacted for comment but did not respond in time for this week’s deadline.