By Brendan Rees
Casey Council has been awarded a sought-after Victorian government grant to boost local social housing.
Minister for Housing, Disability and Ageing Martin Foley announced the worthy recipients of the Social Housing Investment Planning (SHIP) grants last week which provides $2.5 million to local governments to plan new social housing in their regions.
City of Casey Mayor Cr Geoff Ablett said the Casey Council was thrilled to receive a grant of $145,000 which would go towards employing an officer to develop and research an Affordable and Social Housing Strategy for Council.
“This strategy will detail how council can help facilitate social housing within our municipality, including planning requirements, advocacy, building partnerships and more,” Cr Ablett said.
“Council is committed to supporting the State Government in its effort to help achieve affordable housing throughout Victoria and has established with the Shire of Cardinia, the Casey-Cardinia Homelessness Network which advises Council on affordable and social housing issues.”
Cranbourne Information and Support Service (CISS) executive officer Leanne Petrides welcomed the grant saying it would help tackle the rising problems of housing disadvantage.
“At CISS, we see more and more people struggling with housing stress and being pushed to the brink of homelessness. We hope to see announcements by both major parties prior to the election around a strong, sustained investment in public housing,” she said.
Member for Narre Warren North, Luke Donnellan said: “We need to grow social housing in Casey and the Victorian Government has awarded this grant to assist Casey Council to plan for future growth.”
Minister for Housing, Disability and Ageing, Martin Foley said the grants would help build new social housing projects designed to meet increasing demand for affordable housing across the state.
“We are giving local governments the help they need to build more modern social housing in their council areas,” he said.
“The quality of the applications we received was very high and I look forward to seeing the impact these projects will have in housing Victorians in their respective communities.”
Fifteen councils from across Victoria received one of the grants.
