Heidi Kraak
Margaret Guthrie moved to Churchill almost 17 years ago to secure affordable housing.
“I lived in Melbourne in a private rental and had an ordinary life if you like,” she said.
“I became ill and eventually lost my employment, I had a child, so in my mid-thirties I found myself a single parent living in a private rental, in debt and welfare-dependent.”
Ms Guthrie said costs were “manageable” to begin with, however, after her landlord gave her a month’s notice, Ms Guthrie and her young son were forced to move further out to obtain an affordable rental.
“There were a lot more costs, as the property went up in rent every six months,” she said.
“Just after Christmas I got a month’s notice to vacate. I was at my wit’s end.”
Although she had been on the public housing wait list “for years”, Ms Guthrie was only then considered a priority case because the notice to vacate meant a child was at risk of homelessness.
With the long waitlist in Melbourne, Ms Guthrie was encouraged to apply for public housing in Churchill and “took a leap of faith”.
Now the chair of the Victorian Public Housing Tenants Association and vice-president of the Churchill and District Community Association, among other volunteer hats, Ms Guthrie is concerned for others.
“One of the shocking things about what has happened with public housing in Victoria is that 20 years ago, there were just over 64,000 public dwellings in Victoria. Twenty years later, there are just over 64,000 public dwellings in Victoria,” she said.
“So growth of public housing has not kept pace with population growth.
“So if you think about those numbers, the percentage of the population that can access public housing is declining because there is no new public housing being built.”
“I am involved with the Victorian Public Housing Tenants Association and we are calling on the current government, the opposition and the Greens to commit to building an additional 2000 public housing properties, per year for the next decade,” she said.
“That is the kind of growth we need to fix the problem of all the people that have been identified as in urgent need of housing but have nowhere to go.” Ms Guthrie said stereotypes of homeless, or those at risk of homelessness, being “old alcoholics” were simply “not true”.
“Women over 55 are the largest cohort facing homelessness …[with] no superannuation or very little, [they are facing homelessness] for all sorts of reasons,” she said.
“We have a great demand for young people, for older people and for families.”
Ms Guthrie said secure and affordable housing was the reason she and her son were now doing well.
“These outcomes have come about because we have safe, secure housing.”
For more information about the Victorian Public Tenants Association, visit vpta.org.au.
