The 2026/27 Victorian State Budget fails to meet the scale and urgency of Victoria’s housing and homelessness crisis. While Haven Home Safe welcomes the commitment to deliver 7,000 social homes, this investment falls far short of what is required to meet current demand and does not provide a sustained pipeline of funding.
More than 56,000 households are now waiting for secure housing in Victoria, including almost 32,000 priority applicants. These are not abstract figures, they represent families, older Victorians, young people and workers being pushed into housing insecurity while demand continues to outpace investment. The average wait time (for priority applicants) to access housing will increase to 18.1 months this year.
This budget failed to acknowledge the reality of housing many Victorians are facing.
We are increasingly supporting people who are employed, but who can no longer sustain private rentals or mortgage costs due to escalating housing and living expenses. Housing insecurity is no longer confined to those on the margins; it is affecting working Victorians across metropolitan and regional communities.
Although not directly related to the services we deliver, we welcome the increase in funding towards easing food insecurity. In regional areas, people often have to choose between rent, food, petrol and medication. In many regional towns there is limited, if any food relief organisations, so people turn to organisations like ours for help. In the last quarter, we saw a fifteen percent increase in people needing emergency relief funding compared to the same time last year.
The 2026/27 budget makes no acknowledgment of the ‘invisible homeless’ – the many people who are currently couch surfing, sleeping in their cars or living in unsafe arrangements, as they cannot access, or afford, appropriate housing due to inadequate supply and rising costs.
Our frontline staff delivering homeless intake supports are at the coalface of this crisis.
While we welcome targeted funding initiatives for assertive outreach and Tenancy Plus, the rest of the budget presents a ‘business as usual’ approach – but we know there is nothing ‘usual’ about the growing number of people who contact us for support each day.
Every day our frontline staff are forced to decide between giving someone the time and attention they need to map out a plan to access supports or seeing as many people as they can. A recent AHURI study found that among people working in the homelessness and housing sector, ninety percent of survey participants reported experiencing moderate-to-high vicarious trauma (trauma resulting from exposure to others’ traumatic experiences) in the workplace. Without sustained investment in the homelessness workforce, services are being forced into crisis triage rather than delivering the intensive support required to prevent long-term homelessness. We need appropriate, consistent, committed funding to be able to resource this workforce so we can provide both the care and support needed for the growing numbers of people who are facing or experiencing homelessness.
Transport rebates and cost-of-living measures will provide temporary and minor relief to people but without a secure and affordable place to live, people cannot stabilise their health, participate in employment, education or ensure family safety. Housing must be treated as essential social and economic infrastructure that receives sustained investment, not as a short-term election commitment.
While there are welcome elements in the 2026/27 Victorian State Budget – it also is a reminder that we are heading into an election. A budget reflects a party’s values, and we implore all candidates and parties to consider the value and dignity that a home’s provides its constituents. Beyond headline grabs, we need a robust, consistent commitment to improving access to homelessness support and housing to be able to make real headway on this crisis.
We’re here and ready to work with any political leaders who would like to know more about what we’re seeing on the frontline, and how we can all work together to create a better future for Victorians.
