Council to Homeless Persons

02/11/2026

Great to see this editorial from The Age urging Victoria’s political parties to commit to serious action on homelessness in the next term of government.

The masthead describes the severity of homelessness in Victoria, referencing our Employed and at Risk report that shows rates of people seeking homelessness support while in employment has surged more than 40% in the last four years.

We back the editorial’s call for tangible action, across all sides of politics:

“Within the next term of government, both Victorian Labor and the Coalition must commit to numerical targets to drastically reduce homelessness in this state.

“And they must invest further in tangible solutions to the crisis, beyond getting people to services’ front door. This means safe and secure accommodation, and social housing.”

Read full editorial here:

When former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio walked Melbourne’s streets for the first time, he marvelled at what the city had to offer. But an insidious problem evades our legislators.

01/11/2026

This election, put housing fairness first. Because every home is a future. And every Victorian deserves a future that is safe and dignified.

Read more in our Election Priorities Guide via link in our bio

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29/10/2026

It’s important and necessary to see homelessness as the opening discussion on ’s Morning Show with this morning.

Nearly 14,000 Victorians last year found that even having a job could not protect them from the risk of homelessness. More than 4,400 of them were in full-time employment and yet still had to worry about whether they’d have somewhere safe to live next week.

This is the reality of homelessness. Homelessness is not a failure of people, it’s a failure of systems. It can happen to any one us.

There is no longer anywhere in Victoria where the median rental is affordable on the median Australian wage.

Public & community housing should be the insurance policy ensuring every Victorian has somewhere to safe to live in circumstances like this. But Victoria has the lowest proportion of social housing in Australia.

As a result, there are now more than 40,000 households stuck on the priority housing waitlist despite having what the government accepts as an “urgent” need for appropriate housing.

The message was clear from callers to Raf’s show this morning, just as it was clear from communities as we took the Walk In Her Shoes exhibition across Victoria this year: The public see the scale of need caused by our housing crisis, but they're not seeing a scale of commitments from our major parties to match it.

It’s fantastic the Liberal/National parties have committed to deliver a Victorian Homelessness Strategy if elected, and we're confident we’ll see a similar commitment from the Labor Party before election day. A new approach to the system that a Strategy will bring is urgently needed.

But we also need houses. A lot of them. We’re calling on all parties to commit to building 80,000 new public and community housing homes in the next decade. We need that many just to lift Victoria up to the national proportion of social housing.
And we need that commitment now, together with a defined pipeline for delivery, for the public to see our political representatives are committed to delivering the transformational change needed to protect the health and safety of Victorians.

28/10/2026

Today CHP has released our report Employed and At Risk 2026. It shows the number of working Victorians receiving homelessness support has increased a staggering 42% over the past four years. This increase is particularly being driven by Melbourne’s Growth Corridor suburbs, which have seen a 58% rise in employed people receiving homelessness support.

Even full-time employment is no longer enough to keep Victorians safe from the risk of homelessness. Approximately one-third of employed people receiving homelessness support in 2024-25 had full-time jobs.

The burden of “working homelessness” is being borne disproportionately by women. Women constituted 73.45% of the employed Victorians receiving homelessness support in 2024-25.

These findings emphasise that homelessness can happen to any Victorian, and that there is an urgent need for Victoria to prioritise responses that will ensure no one has to live without somewhere safe and dignified to call home. In particular, we need:
- an increase for rental protection programs, which help people keep their homes in moments of rental crisis; and
- a commitment to build 80,000 additional public and community housing homes over the next decade.

Public and community housing is essential infrastructure. It is every Victorian’s insurance policy to ensure they have somewhere safe and dignified to live if the unimaginable happens. That is more important than ever when the private rental market is leaving so many average Victorians locked out of housing.

Read the full report at:https://chp.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Employed-and-At-Risk-2026.pdf

27/10/2026

Homelessness can happen to anyone, and it’s happening to more and more Victorians every day.

This Victorian election, ask your political candidates to commit to these forward-thinking, community-building responses that will end homelessness:

• Develop a Victorian Homelessness Strategy that can deliver a cutting-edge, all-of-government approach to end homelessness in our state.

• Continue implementation of the nation-leading Victorian Aboriginal Housing and Homelessness Framework.

• Double supportive housing to help people sleeping rough move off the streets into safe homes.

• Deliver 500 medium-term supported housing places for young people experiencing mental illness and homelessness, to help them find the stability they need to build their futures.

• A Public Housing Repair Blitz to bring back online more than 1500 public housing homes currently awaiting repairs.

• A Public and Community Housing Building Blitz delivering 80,000 additional homes over the next 10 years to lift Victoria up to the national average.

Read more in our Election Priorities Guide:https://chp.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/CHP-Election-Priorities-Guide-2026.pdf

26/10/2026

Whatever someone's housing situation, as a Victorian citizen, they have the right to vote.

If you are supporting someone experiencing homelessness, you can help them enrol. Here are some key pointers to keep in mind:

• The Victorian electoral role closes at 8pm on Tuesday 3 November – that’s next week! Make sure you check or update enrolment details before then.

• Enrolment is not compulsory for people experiencing homelessness who are not already enrolled. However, if they are enrolled, it is compulsory to maintain enrolment.

• You can help someone check their enrolment at enrolment.vec.vic.gov.au

• If you want to update enrolment or help someone enrol for the first time, you may need to fill out a ‘no fixed address’ form.

Learn more in our handy 2026 enrolment guide, here: https://lnkd.in/gPM3HdYK

25/10/2026

Right now, too many young Victorians experiencing mental ill-health are stuck in a revolving door of emergency departments, crisis services, and unstable housing.

In 2021, the Mental Health Royal Commission recognised the need for coordinated housing and mental health responses. Yet Recommendation 25, which called for supported accommodation that combines safe housing with integrated mental health support, is still waiting for action.

We’re still left waiting for 500 supported accommodation places for young people, which were promised but not delivered.

That’s why we’ve joined with more than 30 Victorian organisations in calling for investment in supported accommodation for young people experiencing homelessness and mental ill-health.

We’re asking Jess Wilson MP, Ben Carroll MP, Ellen Sandell MP, Ingrid Stitt MP and Emma Kealy for Lowan to commit to seeing this through.

Join us in calling on all political parties to act on Recommendation 25. Share this post, tag your local candidates, and contact your local MP to support investment in our state's young people.

25/10/2026

Frontline workers are the backbone of the homelessness service system and do an incredible job within a complex and often under-resourced environment.

It was a privilege to attend the frontline workforce forum, hosted by Minister for Housing and Homelessness the Hon. Nick Staikos MP last week, to listen to frontline workers across the state, who shared their experiences of working across diverse roles and geographical areas.

Participants shared reflections on what was working well, where the gaps were, and their focus on how best to provide the best possible service and support to people experiencing and at risk of homelessness.

The insights gained were critical in understanding what needs to happen in terms of homelessness system reform.

We thank the participants for contributing their expertise and honest reflections.

Pictured: CHP CEO Deborah Di Natale and Director of Workforce Development & Innovation Swagata Bapat, with Minister Staikos.

22/10/2026

When more than 40,000 households are on Victoria's public and community housing waitlist with a priority need for an appropriate home, and family violence-victim survivors are waiting an average 18.6 months for safe housing, such an incredible opportunity as the State Government's just-announced election commitment of a $1 billion, publicly-funded build of 25,000 new homes needs to include its fair share of public housing.

It's disappointing to see this is not currently part of the commitment.

Public and community housing is life-changing for everyday Victorians. And it's an economic driver, saving the government billions in costs to other sectors, and generating $2 in benefits for every $1 invested, according to SGS Economics. It just makes sense.

We urge the government to make this transformational project one that will help all Victorians, by making at least 10 per cent of these 25,000 new homes public housing.

Premier Ben Carroll will announce 25,000 new homes will be built for first-time buyers, with the proposed sites spanning Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Latrobe.

19/10/2026

“The single biggest intervention that this country can make to end homelessness is to make a commitment to build more community and public housing.”

CHP CEO Deborah Di Natale spoke to A Current Affair about the rising pressures homelessness services are facing, as illustrated in the report launched last week.

It’s great to see attention being paid to the increasing number of people being pushed to the brink of homelessness and the fact that, as Lena and Deb say in the report, the only way to truly turn this around is to get serious about investing in a Public and Community Housing Building Blitz in Victoria.

Catch the full report here:

A mother of four, a full-time advocate, and a lifeline to those sle...