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OPEN Door Neighbourhood House coordinator Loretta Waters and volunteers know the importance of the house’s food relief provision. Open Door has backed Neighbourhood House Victoria calls for an increase in funding to ensure such services are maintained. STORY PAGE 3 PHOTO: Kurt Hickling
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HOME FOR ALL Council looks at ways y to create more affordable housing, g, tackle homelessness
WANGARATTA council has unveiled a new draft strategy to increase affordable housing and work towards ending homelessness and people sleeping rough in the city. The Affordable Housing Strategy that went before councillors at Tuesday
BY STEVE KELLY skelly@ nemedia.com.au
night’s meeting and is being released for public comment, contains a series of aims, principles and actions into how council
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can proactively work with government and partners to bolster housing options. Figures highlighted in the strategy show that 30 per cent of rents are more than 30 per cent of incomes (2021 Census), while 11pc of mortgagees have repayments more than
have been a rise in house prices by 50pc in three years where housing supply has not kept up with demand. He said key worker accommodation is also sparse and they are not able to find housing they can afford, consequently impacting
30pc of their incomes. There are 686 social housing dwellings in the city, however, the 2021 Census reported a 67pc increase in homelessness from 125 people compared to 75 in 2016. Mayor Dean Rees noted that contributing factors
services and businesses. Along with increasing support of social and affordable housing, council aims for homelessness across the municipality to be “rare, brief and a one-time occurrence and that no one has to sleep rough in the city”. ■ Continued page 3
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