By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
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STEEP house prices have prompted Greater Dandenong Council to take to the streets for feedback on affordable housing.
This week, the council will hold listening posts at Dandenong Market to hear public ideas for its housing strategy.
Last week, Dandenong was listed as the 10th highest of Victorian postcodes for the number of bankruptcies (42) in 2010-11.
It compounds a bleak picture presented by Australians for Affordable Housing figures in December 2011.
The figures listed Greater Dandenong as the highest for housing stress in the state with 10,236 households – or one in five households – spending more than 30 per cent of their income on their mortgage or rent.
AAH spokeswoman Sarah Toohey said people tended to struggle with housing stress “silently”.
She said median rent prices for three-bedroom homes were “way out of the price range” of people on government assistance or the minimum wage.
Ms Toohey called for a “national housing plan” that included increased rent assistance, more low-cost rental housing and low-cost loan schemes. “The objective has got to be that everyone can afford somewhere to live.”
Greater Dandenong’s March briefing paper for its housing strategy showed that house prices have exceeded incomes in the past 10 years.
The paper stated rental vacancy rates have fallen, public housing waiting lists have grown and homelessness has increased.
Greater Dandenong mayor Youhorn Chea said the council “considers that it should take a role in housing issues well into the future”.
Consultation sessions will be held tomorrow (Tuesday) from 1-3pm and on Saturday from 10am-noon at Dandenong Market.
