Regional housing fund questioned in Commonwealth Games inquiry

The discovery was one of several pieces of testimony by Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) executives that raised questions about a program the government says will put a huge dint in social housing wait lists by building 1300 new homes across the state.

Three south-west MPs are on the select committee conducting the inquiry, Labor's Warrnambool-based Jacinta Ermacora, Liberal Joe McCracken, and Greens MP Sarah Mansfield.

Mr McCracken asked DFFH secretary Peta McCammon when she first heard about the cancellation of the games in regional Victoria.

"I think it was five minutes before the announcement (by Premier Daniel Andrews)," Ms McCammon said.

Mr Andrews announced the $1.15 billion housing program at the same press conference. Mr McCracken asked whether Ms McCammon had "any idea that that was going to be announced at all". She said she'd had no idea.

Mr McCracken asked where the figures - 1300 houses and $1.15 billion cost - came from, if they hadn't come from the department that was supposed to be delivering the program. Ms McCammon said she didn't know.

Mr McCracken then asked about the cost per home according to the government's figures, which worked out to about $770,000 each. "That seems like a lot for one home, don't you think, given the spend?" he said.

Homes Victoria chief Simon Newport said the funding had to absorb several variables, including rising construction costs, the potential need to purchase land where some of the houses would be built, and the hope that more than 1300 homes would ultimately be built.

Mr McCracken asked how much land would have to be purchased across the state, and how much of the $1.15 billion this would consume, but Mr Newport said those details were "still being worked through".

Ms Ermacora tried to ask Mr Newport for data on the public housing wait lists for the south-west.

Mr Newport: Okay. So Barwon, obviously you know with Barwon it borders Geelong -

Ms Ermacora: No, not Barwon. The south-west.

Oh, sorry. You said the south-west. - Yes

Okay. So I have got the Central Highlands, which you are talking about. Ballarat. - No. Warrnambool, Colac.

I am sorry, I do not have Warrnambool's particular figure on here.

Dr Mansfield asked whether the four games village sites were still going to be used for housing. Mr Newport said Development Victoria would decide whether to develop the sites, but if it did Housing Victoria would then have to purchase properties from Development Victoria from the $1.15 billion funding total.

Dr Mansfield asked what proportion of the 1300 new homes would be social or public housing. Mr Newport said that hadn't been decided, but it would be a "healthy percentage". He said he believed the new homes would make a "significant difference" to public housing wait lists.

Speaking in her capacity as an MP for Western Victoria, Dr Mansfield told The Standard 1300 homes "won't go anywhere near meeting the need" across the state.

"Over 4000 households are waiting for public housing in the Wimmera South West region alone," she said.

"The government has been unable to give us any information about what proportion of these homes will be public, community, or genuinely affordable housing. We don't know where they will be located or how decisions about the location will be made."

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