Warrnambool is in desperate needed more public housing, a former mayor says, while also calling for neglected properties to be "cleaned up" and for vacant ones not to be left empty.
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There are plans for eight more public housing units but Jack Daffy says it is not enough to solve the growing housing crisis.
Mr Daffy said he had long raised concerns about the number of department of housing properties that sat empty and neglected while people were being forced to sleep in their cars or couch surf.
He said he had lobbied state politicians to raise questions in parliament about the vacant properties, while also talking to the council about why so many properties were allowed to become overgrown and yards filled with rubbish.
"They're a wilderness with rubbish around them. They're definitely a fire hazard," he said.
"There'd have to be vermin in them, mattresses, old cars, you name it, they're in it.
"Some have been vacant for quite a while and it's just one hell of a mess.
"Meanwhile, we've got people sleeping in cars around the streets of Warrnambool tonight."
Mr Daffy said he had questioned the council about whether notices were being served on either the department of housing or occupants to "clean the damned things up".
He said he had counted a "reasonable number" of vacant public housing properties, but under questioning in parliament the state government said there was only four in the area and most were under repair.
Statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services show there were more than 2000 public housing properties in the Wimmera south-west region but 691 people were on the waiting list.
In 2018, 596 people in the south-west faced a two-year wait for housing while in December 2016 there was 408 on the waiting list.
The state government said it had developed the $2.6 billion Homes for Victorians plan which was expected to result in about 6000 new social housing homes and renewal of about 2500 existing public housing residences.
But just how much of that is to flow to the south-west is not clear.
An application for a new eight-unit development in Crawley Street is set to provide more public housing by 2021-22, if approved by the council.
The two-bedroom units will be built on a vacant site where a number of houses were demolished about five years ago
Mr Daffy said there was also virtually no private rental properties in Warrnambool and people coming to Warrnambool can't find anywhere to live.
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