Central Highlands Homelessness Alliance says a promised housing package after the Commonwealth Games cancellation is not sufficient.
To make up for the loss of the Games, then-Premier Daniel Andrews last year announced a $1 billion regional housing fund to build 1,300 new homes across regional Victoria.
However, Alliance coordinator Michelle Twigger says their services are seeing more and more demand, with a big influx of young people.
Ms. Twigger says she hopes the sense of urgency will be heard by the Government.
“We know that there are 211 new homes coming on stream over the next two years in the region, however 211 homes are not going to meet the need and the delay is what is causing such a large increase in the demand for our services,” she said.
The alliance was one of several organisations voicing their concerns at a regional Victoria Commonwealth Games inquiry on Wednesday, including Tourism Midwest, the City of Ballarat and Central Highlands Regional Partnership.
Member for Western Victoria, Joe McCracken, who sits on the panel, says he has question marks over the promised infrastructure actually being delivered.
“Am I convinced that it’s going to happen? Not really, particularly when I look at the train station, we haven’t seen much action there, the thousand car parks promised that hasn’t been delivered [and] the Comm Games, promised at election then cancelled,” he said.
“It’s sort of a pattern of behaviour that sort of says ‘yeah, they’ll say something’, but then when it comes to the crunch it doesn’t get delivered.”
