A steep increase in the number of renters being evicted from their
homes has reached crisis point, according to Wyndham social workers.
Police are executing eviction warrants on 22 rental properties in
the municipality every month, with families feeling the sting of
spiralling unemployment and Centrelink cuts more than anywhere else in
Victoria.
Figures obtained from the Victorian Civil and Administrative
Tribunal reveal the number of eviction warrants executed in Wyndham has
risen 40 per cent since 2011 to more than 263 in the year to July.
Social services warn a new class of homelessness is emerging in
the municipality, which has the some of the Melbourne’s lowest median
rents but the state’s highest numbers of jobseekers and single parents
surviving on welfare.
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Financial counsellors, community lawyers and emergency relief
providers will form a working group with Wyndham police and the
Sheriff’s Office to increase early intervention and keep vulnerable
tenants out of arrears.
UnitingCare Werribee Support and Housing says the eviction crisis
is particularly affecting families renting in newer estates in growth
suburbs such as Tarneit, where an eviction warrant is executed every
week. Renters are being evicted once a fortnight in Point Cook and
Truganina.
Crisis counsellor Vaska Dervisovski said many of Wyndham’s
single-parent families had been plunged deeper into poverty after losing
up to $110 a week in Centrelink payments.
Former prime minister Julia Gillard’s decision to shift thousands
of single parents from parenting payments to lower-paying Newstart when
their youngest child turns eight caused controversy in her seat of
Lalor, which takes in Wyndham.
“This is contributing to people becoming more marginalised,” Ms Dervisovski said.
She said families stripped of up to $110 a week were often unable
to meet their needs, and rental arrears were not as high a priority as
food and utilities.
The cuts are compounded by the west’s worst jobs slide in years. Almost 1000
Wyndham residents joined the unemployment queue in the past year,
pushing the unemployment rate to 9 per cent – well above the national
average of 5.7 per cent. Centrelink figures show there was a 25 per
cent increase in the number of jobseekers in Wyndham in the first half
of the year. Ms Dervisovski said social services were facing
unprecedented demand and were keen to emphasise the importance of
linking vulnerable renters with financial counselling “before it’s too
late”.
Wyndham Legal Service’s Shorna Moore said tenants often failed to
seek help when facing massive debts and ignored warning letters from
real estate agents.
“In most cases, the tenants aren’t even turning up to their
hearing, so the order is made without considering the tenants’ side of
things and there’s no chance of saving them,” she said.
