Hundreds more social housing properties are needed to meet the demands of the south-west community, according to Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell.
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Ms Britnell said the announcement the government would build 31 properties in Warrnambool and 53 in Portland was a start, but there were 851 applications to the waiting list for the June quarter with 493 of those being on the priority list.
"It's a drop in the ocean of what is actually needed," Ms Britnell said.
She said the housing situation right across South West Coast was being impacted by a number of factors that had created "a perfect storm".
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"The Labor government's changes to residential tenancy laws which made significant changes to the rights of owners have seen a large number of private rental properties being withdrawn from the market which then puts pressure on supply and affordability," Ms Britnell said.
"As affordable private rentals disappear, pressure is increased on public housing - which already has a critical shortage of properties.
"It's going to take a lot more than building 83 new social housing properties to address the serious issues our region has with homelessness and access to housing."
Member for Western Victoria Gayle Tierney made the announcement last week that Warrnambool was set to get 31 new social housing properties under the state government's Big Housing Build, with construction set to begin this year. In addition to that Portland will receive 53 and Camperdown 13.
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