MORE people in Melbourne's western suburbs live in crisis accommodation than any other area outside the inner city, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's latest report says.
Released last week, the report Counting the Homeless 2006 says 1843 people in the municipalities of Maribyrnong, Moonee Valley, Hobsons Bay and Brimbank were recorded as homeless.
The report is based on the 2006 Census data and is co-authored by Associate Professor David MacKenzie, from Swinburne University, and Associate Professor Chris Chamberlain, from the RMIT.
It shows 837 people were living in crisis accommodation, a 10 per cent increase on the 2001 Census figure.
The report also shows the rate of homelessness in the western suburbs is 44 people per 10,000 residents, the second-highest outside inner-Melbourne areas of Melbourne, Prahran, Yarra and Port Phillip, where the rate was 129 homeless people per 10,000.
The report also said that in the western suburbs: 599 people, 33 per cent, were 'couch surfing' (temporarily living with relatives or friends); 288 people, 16 per cent, were living in boarding houses with no separate bedroom or living room and no private kitchen or bathroom facilities; 50 people, 3 per cent, were living in caravan parks; 50, 3 per cent, were living on the streets.
Melbourne Citymission homelessness accommodation manager Nada Vindis said there was an alarming number of families seeking crisis accommodation or living in their cars. There was a lack of enough public and crisis housing to provide temporary shelter.
While she was critical of the "sub-standard" rooming houses and caravan parks, she said they were often the only option available.
She said homelessness was a failure of society, not the individual. She called for proper urban planning to combat homelessness.
David Wright-Howie, chief executive of the peak body for homelessness services, the Council to Homeless Persons, said the figures might be under-stating the problem, given the recent global financial crisis and high demand for rental property.
He said CHP had launched a campaign to clean up overcrowded rooming houses in the western suburbs, where a large number of Maribyrnong's homeless population lived temporarily.
Mr Wright-Howie welcomed the State Government's plans to revise its homelessness strategy, but said there were people in need now.
A Government spokesman said work was under way on a 10-year Victorian Homelessness Strategy.
"The 2009 state budget provided $104.8 million over four years for homelessness and housing initiatives because we are committed to reducing youth homelessness and cutting the numbers of those at risk of homelessness."
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