Securing housing
Election Priority 2026: Rapidly expand social and affordable housing stock to ensure children, young people, care leavers and families experiencing disadvantage have access to safe, secure and stable housing.
05 Aug 2026
Election Priority
What this looks like:
- Committing capital investment to grow the stock of social and affordable housing so that supply keeps pace with the number of children and families waiting for stable accommodation.
- Streamline access for at-risk families to reduce the time children and families spend in unstable housing or homelessness services by fast-tracking access for those at greatest developmental risk.
- Create an integrated housing and family support system, designing housing and homelessness responses around the stability children need, not the boundaries between housing, homelessness and family services systems.
Background
Secure, stable housing is a foundational determinant of child wellbeing. Housing conditions shape family stress, developmental risk exposure, and how long children and families remain engaged with support services. For the child and family services sector, this is not an abstract concern. Housing instability is a critical intersecting complexity that runs throughout the systems that the Centre’s members work in every day.
Housing stress for families is a result of structural pressure and is not a short-term crisis. Homelessness and family services are responding to sustained demand driven by affordability constraints rather than short-term or cyclical pressures, meaning families remain in service systems for longer as they wait for stable accommodation.
Family groups have prolonged engagement with housing support services. Persistent homelessness remains significant, and where housing supply is constrained, families can stay connected to homelessness and family services for extended periods before accessing stable housing, extending children’s exposure to developmental risk.
Affordability is the underlying driver. Reliance on Commonwealth Rent Assistance and other subsidies shows that private rental market conditions, not the behaviour or circumstances of families, are the main structural factor contributing to family stress.
Government investment in social and affordable housing has grown substantially, including through the Big Housing Build and Housing Statement: The Decade Ahead 2024–2034. This investment is welcome, but it is not sufficient to meet current or future need. Victoria continues to record the lowest proportion of social housing of any state or territory, and the gap between supply and demand continues to widen.
Independent modelling shows the state needs to build almost 8,000 new social homes every year for the next decade to reach the national average. Without a substantial increase in the pace of delivery, children and families will continue to wait longer for stable housing.
Key data points
- Victoria received the largest number of Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) clients of any state in 2024–25 (around 105,000 of the 288,970 national total) despite being home to roughly a quarter of Australia’s population and had the second-highest client rate nationally (151.2 per 10,000, behind only the NT).
- Victoria has the lowest proportion of social housing in its total housing stock of any state or territory, just 3.0% of households, compared with a national average of 4.1%.
- Victoria accounted for the largest share of housing affordability-stressed SHS clients nationally in 2024–25, around 9,000 clients, or one-third (34%) of the national total.
- Victoria’s social housing waiting list grew by more than 7% in the year to March 2025 (to 66,117 households, including 37,438 on the priority list), while the total stock of social housing dwellings increased by just 2.5% over the same period.
- An estimated 135,000 Victorian households are currently living in or waiting for social housing, against a current supply of around 90,400 dwellings – a shortfall of approximately 45,000 homes.
- Aboriginal children and families in Victoria are being pushed into homelessness at a fast-growing rate; 14,031 Aboriginal Victorians accessed SHS in 2024–25 (up almost 10% in a year), including almost 1,000 Aboriginal children under 10 who were already experiencing homelessness when they presented, and a 25% increase in Aboriginal children aged 10–14 accessing services.
- Family violence remains the leading driver of homelessness for Victorian children and families with more than 13,000 people a month have sought SHS support because of family violence every month since August 2023, alongside more than 10,000 a month citing housing affordability stress since January 2023.
Key programs
Key research
- Productivity Commission – Report on Government Services 2024–25 (Housing and Homelessness) – The primary national source of housing and homelessness performance data. The report provides information on social housing, housing affordability, homelessness services, unmet demand, and outcomes across jurisdictions, making it a key evidence base for housing policy and advocacy.
- Building Futures: A New Support System for Families with Children Experiencing Homelessness – This report examines the experiences of families with children experiencing homelessness and argues for a redesigned service system focused on prevention, rapid rehousing and sustained support. It highlights the long-term impacts of homelessness on children and the importance of integrated family-focused responses.
- Victorian Youth Homelessness Snapshot 2025 (MCM & Social Ventures Australia) – The report captures the experiences of 15–24-year-olds accessing youth homelessness services and highlights the intersection of homelessness, family violence, child protection, mental health and disengagement from education and employment.
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Report: Housing – This national evidence base examines the relationship between family violence and housing insecurity, including pathways into homelessness, housing outcomes following family violence, and the housing support needs of women, children and families affected by violence.
Federal housing commitment offers new hope for young people and women escaping violence
15 Sep 2026
The Centre joins over 200 members of the Home Time youth housing coalition in welcoming the Australian Government's decision to extend the Housing Australia Future Fund crisis and transitional housing program, supporting the delivery of around 500 additional homes.
MEDIA RELEASE: Election priorities for Victoria’s children and families
05 Aug 2026
The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare calls for commitments to Victoria’s children and families
Securing housing
05 Aug 2026
Election Priority 2026: Rapidly expand social and affordable housing stock to ensure children, young people, care leavers and families experiencing disadvantage have access to safe, secure and stable housing.