By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
ILLEGAL rooming houses, online gaming addictions and housing stress is on the rise in Casey, putting people on the edge of poverty.
Executive officer at Cranbourne Information and Support Service (CISS) Leanne Petrides said, on average, the community organisation gave away one swag a week.
“We have a drop in crisis support service, and about 20 per cent of the people that walk in for that service each month are brand new clients and are new to the area,” Ms Petrides said.
Giving away the swags donated by Cranbourne Rotary, Ms Petrides said housing stress was what drove people into CISS.
“Sometimes, there’s nothing else we can do for them, but give them a swag and try and make them a little bit more comfortable which is really sad in a country like ours,” she said.
In the past 17 years, Ms Petrides has seen Casey’s population skyrocket along with disadvantage and poverty.
“When I first started, we would be lucky to see six people in a day and they’d come in for some help with food, yesterday we saw 32 just for emergency relief, and the amount of disadvantage tends to be a bit of a pattern with the new growth areas,” she said.
“People get really excited and aspirational, and they move in to the area because they’ve been able to just afford a mortgage, but they still might be living on the edge and things catch up.”
Ms Petrides said a lot of the people she saw in Casey were casually employed or on welfare benefits and when circumstances changed they struggled to support themselves.
“Their casual hours might get cut, they might get sick and they don’t get sick leave, they don’t get holiday pay and they still have a mortgage or rent to pay and the majority are living on a very low income,” she said.
With many people spending up to 70 per cent of their low income on keeping a roof over their head, Ms Petrides said the bare necessities became unaffordable.
“Without a doubt housing stress in Casey South is the biggest driver of people seeking help.”
Out of what Ms Petrides calls pure desperation, she has witnessed both illegal and legal rooming houses, with up to four grown men sleeping in bunk beds increase across Casey.
“We have a more diverse population now, and we are seeing asylum seekers placed on community detention in Casey living off 89 per cent of the lowest welfare, who are not allowed to work or study and still have to pay rent and food,” she said.
“So you can get six asylum seeker males living in one house just trying to get by, by pooling their welfare.”
“Some are registered, but some are illegal and the occupants would be homeless without them,” she said.
In recent months, CISS has also noticed a new trend in expensive shared bunk bed rooms which have increased right across Casey.
“It’s really sad- they are desperate,” Ms Petrides said.
Along with housing stress, the team at CISS recognise pokie machines as another severe problem.
“I think a bigger hidden issue is gambling, it’s more common in Casey than people realise,” Ms Petrides explained.
“People are more reluctant to speak up about their gambling addiction and how it’s impacting their lives because there’s a shame attached to it.”
But it’s not just gambling that’s burdening the Casey community- Ms Petrides said online gaming addictions are ruining relationships at a rapidly increasing rate.
“We have people who come in for counselling because their gaming is impacting their lives, sometimes we see their family members who can’t deal with it anymore and other times a couple will come in together,” she said.
