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General News

20 May, 2024

Local renters to benefit from funding to service

Maryborough renters will receive important information and local advocacy services at an integral time after Tenants Victoria’s Renter Stress Hub program received funding from the Victorian Government. The program collected a share of the $7.8...

By Maryborough Advertiser

Local renters to benefit from funding to service - feature photo

Maryborough renters will receive important information and local advocacy services at an integral time after Tenants Victoria’s Renter Stress Hub program received funding from the Victorian Government.

The program collected a share of the $7.8 million Rental Stress Support Package, which will be used to boost digital tools and online resources available for rental advocates like local human rights organisation, ARC Justice.

The free legal service provides advice on a range of legal subjects to residents in the Central Goldfields, Loddon and Mount Alexander shires through the Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre.

ARC Justice CEO Damian Stock said the support will build upon their existing renting services to assist residents through the continued rental crisis.

“This new funding allows us to work in a collaborative way with Tenants Victoria and three other community rental centres across the state to provide a coordinated response to meeting increased demand from renters,” he said.

“Tenants Victoria will have an increased capacity to a whole range of online tools that will help renters.

“We can refer people to those materials and ask them to come back to us if that doesn’t solve the problem that they are experiencing.

“It is really important that investments like this are continued because we know the rental crisis is very unfortunately going to continue for some time.”

According to the Department of Families Fairness and Housing, the Central Goldfields Shire had only 811 active bonds in December 2023, a nearly three percent decrease from the year before and the lowest since 2015.

The department also found the median rent for a three bedroom house in the shire was $360, an over six percent increase from 2022.

Mr Stock said the decrease in availability and increase in price has created unprecedented issues for the rental market.

“We are pretty overwhelmed with housing need, we know renters are in greater stress than they have ever been across central Victoria practically with rent increases and evictions really on the rise and the consequences being more significant in terms of potential homelessness,” he said.

“A healthy rental market has around a three percent vacancy rate, currently vacancy rates are less than one percent which we have never seen before in regional Victoria.”

Mr Stock said it is integral for local renters to be educated on their rights, especially during the current renting climate.

“We think that renting rights should be taught in high school — you are taught how to cook, sow and build so you should probably be taught how to rent,” he said.

“Everybody is a renter at some point in their lives and it is really essential to know what your rights are.

“We do a lot of community legal education, provide information resources, help negotiate with their landlord if they are facing eviction or the landlord is not complying with their duties, and if necessary we can help people apply to Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and represent them.”

For more information, or to seek help from ARC Justice, visit arcjustice.org.au/programs/loddon-campaspe-clc

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