Uniting Ballarat data shows money spent on supporting people to stay in crisis accommodation, including hotels and motels, more than tripled in December 2020 compared to the same time the year before.

Uniting spent more than $64,500 in December 2020 of its Housing Establishment Fund (HEF), compared to $20,000 in December 2019.

This is an increase from almost $12,600 in July 2019.

There are currently about 60 households residing in hotels and motels in Ballarat supported by Uniting.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAVE YOUR SAY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE

Uniting Ballarat acting housing and homelessness coordinator Adam Liversage said the organisation received a boost to its HEF during the coronavirus pandemic to support more people in crisis.

But he said the government had not recognised the worrying rise in demand for housing help by funding extra staff.

"We are pushing the department for extra resources and staffing to cope with the demand, that is our biggest issue," Mr Liversage said.

"I have been working here for 12 years and since then we haven't had an increase in our staff in entry point."

Uniting is the entry point for homelessness services in Ballarat, meaning the organisation's Initial Assessment and Planning (IAP) team are the first to have contact with those seeking help.

"Even though the department has acknowledged through HEF demand has increased two fold, the staffing hasn't increased," Mr Liversage said.

"So we have had to pull workers from other programs.

"Everyone has had to brunt the load... It is an absolute nightmare."

Uniting's entry point team supported 182 new clients in November 2020 and 166 in December 2020.

Staff worked with a total number of 426 clients in November and 418 in December.

Uniting IAP worker Sharron said the high demand and pressure on staff meant they were not able to address the complexities or secure emergency accommodation for every client.

Asked how the team was managing, she said, 'sometimes we're not, to be honest'.

"The hard part is at the end of the day knowing there are really vulnerable, complex clients who we can't always assist because the appointments aren't available or the motels are completely booked out," she said.

"At the end of the day we know there are vulnerable people needing emergency accommodation but we just can't meet that need."

Fellow Uniting IAP worker Alison said placing people in motels and hotels was often the only option to have a roof over their head, but even that was difficult to achieve during the busy tourism season and with dropping coronavirus supplements for government benefits.

IN OTHER NEWS

"If the motels we work with are all full, there is no where we can place people, so as the demand increases we are seeing people again really vulnerable and no where to sleep at night," Sharron said.

"It is stressful. It is challenging going home to our own beds knowing we weren't able to put other people into a bed for the night to know that they are safe, to know they are not in couch surfing options that they themselves say are unsafe or are choosing to sleep rough because there are no places to go.

"But we have an amazing organisation and the support from management is brilliant. We get through with our team, with management and the organisation knowing we are doing the best we can.

"But it would be great if there were more staff available and more resources to be able to place these vulnerable people into a safe environment, to give them that sense of relief that they can breathe out and know they have a bed for their children."

Mr Liversage said a lack of affordable housing, lack of social housing, particularly single bedroom units, and increases in family violence were the main causes of housing struggles.

Alison said the rental market was continuing to change in Ballarat with more people moving to the region from Melbourne and people being priced out.

"I have spoken to a lot of people lately who have said they are not even getting a look in for rentals," she said.

"If someone is receiving government assistance the majority of their payment is going to housing," Sharron said.

"These people are trapped in a system where they are struggling and we struggle to get them into transitional housing or social housing.

"There is a full wrap around team approach to the clients with other supports and programs, but in the short term they just need somewhere to stay that is safe and to know their children have somewhere stable."

Mr Liversage said Uniting had already met its yearly targets, meaning supporting the number of people they are funded for, four months before the end of the financial year.

Entry point staff made almost 1100 contacts with clients in the month of December alone, an increase from 613 in December 2019.

The Private Rental Assistance Program (PRAP) had its busiest week since COVID-19 hit last week, with staff seeing a combination of Christmas and the decreasing coronavirus supplements to JobSeeker and JobKeeper taking a toll on families.

Mr Liversage said he would continue to advocate to DHHS for extra resourcing for staff.

"We are trying to support the staff. Everyone has their own personal issues and they have to come to work and deal with that as well every day, it adds to the burden and it shouldn't be like that," he said.

"It has always been a bandaid. I think the process and the whole idea behind it works, if it was resourced.

"You will always need money for crisis accommodation and support programs, but they need to be resourced with adequate staff numbers and we need affordable housing.

"We have no extra staff and we are expected to deal with it. It is hard."

A DHHS spokesperson said in a statement the Victorian Government continues to invest record amounts in housing and homelessness programs.

"Since March 2020, the Victorian Government has invested nearly $175 million to help keep people experiencing homelessness safe whilst reducing the potential for community transmission of COVID-19," the statement said.

"This includes $150 million Homelessness to a Home program, which will assist more than 1800 people across Victoria to access support and accommodation to recover and access long-term housing. These packages will commence rolling out in February 2021."

Homeless services vary across Australia, with different approaches and social housing quotas in each region and territory to address a growing issue.

However, the latest information published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare suggests that, of all the states, Victoria has among the most acute housing and homelessness problems in the country.

The details of the Specialist Homelessness Services annual report also indicate the problem in Ballarat is more severe than average - although there are other parts of the state where there is even more pressure on housing stock.

The report highlighted that demand for emergency accommodation had "increased notably" since March 2020.

While there are more up-to-date statistics going to September last year, there were no immediately available sources of data to track more recent trends in the state.

The annual report, which goes up to the end of June last year, suggests that Victoria has among the highest number of people seeking help from housing and homeless services of all states. There were 115,300 people who requested help in Victoria, much more than New South Wales which registered the next most with 70,400.

Victoria's average of 175 clients per 10,000 people was also significantly higher than any other state. (It should be noted that the Northern Territory is a different scale altogether with an average 418 people of every 10,000).

Ballarat itself is notably higher than the Victorian average, with around 201 people from every 10,000 seeking help from housing services - although Warrnambool (255), Shepparton (267) and north west Victoria (303) had more.

However, a closer study of the numbers in Ballarat highlights a worrying trend.

Those seeking help in the city are more likely than almost anywhere else in the state to already be homeless - close to 45 per cent the data says, with the remainder deemed at risk.

For everywhere else apart from inner Melbourne, this was below 40 per cent.

As with areas across the state, housing services are significantly skewed towards women, who represented 55.5 per cent of those using housing and homelessness services in Ballarat.

The data helps explain the Victorian government's recent announcement of $5.3 billion dollar to boost the amount of social housing stock in the state, where investment has historically been lower than anywhere else in the country.

The state government plans to build more than 12,000 new homes across Victoria over the next four years, which it says will increase the state's social housing supply by 10 per cent.

Of those, there are 9300 new social housing homes planned, replacing 1100 old public housing units. Another 2900 new affordable and low-cost homes are also in the pipeline to help low-to-moderate income earners.

It is not yet clear how much of the $5.3 billion will filter through to provide extra social housing in the Ballarat region.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAVE YOUR SAY BELOW

SIGN UP BELOW