Victorians escaping family violence are waiting twice as long for priority public housing than they were two years ago.
The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing in its 2022/23 report reveals public rental wait times for those fleeing family violence blew out from just over 11 months in 2020/21, to 17.1 months in 2021/22 and 23.6 months in 2022/23.
Other people urgently waiting on the public housing list are having to do so on average six months longer than they did two years ago.
Average wait times ballooned from just over a year in 2020/21 to 15 months in 2021/22, to 18 months in 2022/23.
The growing delays for people fleeing family violence are more than double the government's target of 10.5 months to rehome those on the waiting lists.
Sustained demand for social housing following the COVID-19 pandemic and fewer renters moving out were the reasons behind the blowouts, the department said on Wednesday.
The increase shows Victoria is yet to have enough social housing and would need to build at least 6000 dwellings each year for a decade just to keep up, Victorian Council of Social Service interim chief executive Juanita Pope said.
"When possible, victims of violence should be supported to stay in their own home, with the perpetrator moving out instead," she said.
"If women and kids are forced to leave their homes, they should be offered a safe place to live straight away."
The director of Monash University's Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre Kate Fitz-Gibbon said people escaping family violence should not be forced to choose between staying in an abusive relationship or experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness.
“Being able to access safe and suitable housing is critical for victim-survivors at the point of relationship separation but also in the medium and long term," Professor Fitz-Gibbon said in a statement.
"The fact the demand for safe housing is high should not surprise us but in the current housing crisis and economic environment we do need governments to prioritise the safety of women and children."
The Victorian government has committed $469 million to build 1000 new public housing homes for 1800 people fleeing family violence or experiencing homelessness.
"Delivering thousands of new homes takes time, but we’ve already supported more than 7000 households from the waiting list to move into social housing across the state," a government spokesperson said.
"We know there is more to do and that's why we are building more homes than ever before, delivering targeted support to women fleeing family violence and prioritising family violence victim-survivors and their families for housing."
