THE Eurobodalla is experiencing an accommodation crisis which is effecting a significant number of our men, women, children and member of our indigenous community.
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Many people seeking a roof over their head have faced being turned away from full-to capacity crisis accommodation services and being referred from one full service to the next.
Spokesperson for the Department of Housing Alex White said the department had increased the amount of stock in the Eurobodalla by 30 percent since 1995 despite the fact that culminative government funding cuts had taken $375 million dollars from the department.
She said the department has bought or held the lease on 348 properties in the area. In addition, it has helped 110 local people obtain private rental through bond assistance in the past financial year.
She was unsure what further action would be taken by the Department in the Eurobodalla in the future.
"I'd say the department will make an ongoing investment in the area."
"The Eurobodalla Social Housing Forum is currently considering conducting a survey to find out the housing needs for crisis accommodation and exit housing."
Spokeswoman for Eurobodalla Community Housing (ECH) Melissa Williams says people on the Department of Housing's ordinary waiting list can easily face a wait of ten years for a property to become available in the local area.
The ECH is a service which helps people who are on this list to find other low-cost accommodation in the shire.
Ms Williams said most of their work over the last 12 months had been relocating existing clients into other houses because the rental properties they were living had sold out from underneath them.
Meanwhile, the ECH has a waiting list of over hundred people waiting to obtain an affordable home through the organisation.
"It's particularly hard to find anywhere to rent in Moruya," Ms Williams said.
She said there was even one applicant in who had entered their waiting list in 1998 who had yet to be offered a property.
"We get a lot of older people in here pensioners. People who can't afford to pay the rent at the place they are currently staying in.
Currently, the ECH holds the leases for 30 private rental properties, owns nine three-bedroom houses and five units of two to three bedrooms which stand on Council-donated land.
Ms Williams encourages the community to lobby the government for more desperately-need funding for the area.
