HOMES Victoria wants to build on sites across multiple suburbs to help the "urgent need to house vulnerable Victorians".
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It has cited the housing shortage in a slew of applications for planning and building permissions in recent weeks.
The City of Greater Bendigo is currently considering five different applications lodged in one day, which would pave the way for 17 units in total.
They are spread across different sites in the Long Gully and North Bendigo area.
The council is assessing plans for another three units elsewhere.
It comes in the middle of a crippling housing shortage that front line services say has blown out waiting times and intensified the economic fallout from COVID-19.
Housing agency Haven; Home, Safe said tightening rental markets had left people who probably would not otherwise need help coming through its doors.
"We've definitely seen an increase in people who are employed coming to us," manager Rachel Gellatly recently said.
The state government has earmarked cash to flush Bendigo with more public housing in years to come, though Haven; Home, Safe has warned more funds will be needed, especially for emergency support.
Homes Victoria said the projects currently before the council are part of separate replacement work.
"The sites are being redeveloped because of their age and condition," a spokesperson said.
"All properties are still in planning stages but it is hoped ... news homes will be built by June 2024."
The sites include a host of vacant lots where houses have been removed in recent years.
All houses would be single storey and use a simple, modern architectural style that Homes Victoria hoped would help them blend into their neibourhoods' existing characteristics, Homes Victoria told council planners.
They were largely one and two-bedroom units, which could service a demand for smaller public housing.
Most sites would have a maximum two homes to a lot, including at North Bendigo's 9 Magpie Street and Bendigo's 13 Hustlers Road and 16 Redan Street.
Homes Victoria would build four homes at 31-33 Anderson Street, Bendigo.
The biggest build would take place at 20-24 McColl Street, Bendigo.
Builders there would construct seven homes.
Homes Victoria told the council it had notified residents immediately nearby and is awaiting feedback.
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
