Public housing and crisis accommodation services are inundated with demand for their services tripling as temperatures drop and the housing market squeeze continues to tighten.
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SalvoConnect Western, which provides support to those at risk of homelessness, is inundated with people asking for help.
The not-for-profit organisation is funded for 247 new cases per year by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), yet is already up to 622 with an average of 56 cases per month.
In Hamilton the picture is the same; the organisation is up to 215 new cases, around 20 per month, despite only being funded for 123.
In Portland, SalvoConnect is funded for 185 and is up to 248 cases, around 22.5 a month.
Regional manager Lindsay Stow said intake services were under pressure across the region.
"Particularly over the winter months, people tend to lean on resources to get them through," Mr Stow said.
"The funding goes to providing the positions to assist people, so we've still got the same amount of hours available, we're just trying to do it with triple the amount of people coming in.
"It's a difficult situation, it's hard to say no and turn people away but we have to be conscious and aware of the pressure on staff. We also have to be able to give a decent level of service to people."
A DHHS spokesman said there were 891 one and two-bedroom public housing properties across Warrnambool, Portland, Hamilton, Mortlake, Camperdown and Colac.
As of March 2019, there were 1236 social housing applicants on the Victorian Housing Register in the same areas. Of those, 688 were in Warrnambool alone.
"We are committed to upgrading existing properties with 347 public housing properties upgraded in Wimmera South West during the past five years and 18 new properties acquired," the spokesman said.
The squeeze on public and private housing stock is affecting non-profit groups like Emma House, which provide crisis accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
"We have some crisis accommodation, and ideally the maximum time someone can spend in our refuge housing is one to six weeks, and then we have some transitional properties up to three months," Emma House executive officer Ruth Isbel said.
"Due to the housing affordability crisis, we are extending beyond those time periods. We have a woman who has been in refuge for over five months because, like many other areas, affordable housing is a huge issue.
"The system is blocked up because people are unable to exit into affordable housing."
Emma House has five transitional housing properties and relies on hotels for crisis accommodation.
But with much of the south-west filling up over peak tourism periods, finding a hotel room can be impossible.
SalvoConnect experienced a similar squeeze, Mr Stow said.
"At peak tourist times all the local hotels are full, it doesn't leave much option for people to stay," he said.
"We used to be able to get people into caravan parks but now they're all packed out with tourists. There used to be backpackers and rooming houses but the majority have disappeared and a lot of the hotels in town have been redeveloped or knocked down.
"Over the last 10-15 years all those short-term options that used to be available have gradually disappeared and there hasn't been anything to replace them.
"Many that come through our service are going to be exiting into public housing or private rentals, both of those options are really difficult to access at the moment."
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Mr Stow said the public housing demographic had shifted since the 1960s and '70s when many of the south-west's public housing properties were built.
"There's so many more three to four-bedroom houses and that's part of the issue," he said.
"When they were built in the '60s and '70s the social demographic was mum and dad, and two kids. Now there's a lot more single people, and the public housing profile hasn't been able to keep up with that change.
"If you're waiting for a one or two-bedroom place it's a substantial wait because there isn't stock available."
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