![Thousands are on the wait lists for housing in the Bendigo region. Picture by Shutterstock Thousands are on the wait lists for housing in the Bendigo region. Picture by Shutterstock](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/UWYHFAEKnbyAmcM9MqQVJE/05d76b40-7d4b-484a-87d6-bb852645b40f.jpg/r0_0_3898_2598_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Wait times for social housing in the Bendigo area have blown out to months, with thousands of families left in limbo.
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And while 312 new homes have been promised in the Big Housing Build for Bendigo, just 40 have so far been built.
In and around the city 3491 families have applied for social housing, with 2146 listed for priority housing.
The problem has extended further into the Central Victorian region with 732 families in the Mount Alexander Shire on the wait list and 479 of those listed as priority cases.
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In the Loddon Shire 91 have applied for government housing with 52 families in the local government area having applied as priority.
The number of families on the social housing wait list are as recent as March 2023.
Northern Victoria's Liberal member Wendy Lovell has been on the forefront about social housing and has been tracking the data in Central Victoria.
"The State Government like to brag about their big housing build, but...will only add around 8000 additional Social Housing homes," Ms Lovell said.
"Which would leave almost 60,000 families languishing on Labor's ever-growing waiting list."
A spokesperson for the Victorian Government said large scale housing developments were on the cards but "the waiting times for people needing priority housing are longer than we hoped".
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The spokesperson said there were more than 2500 social houses in the Greater Bendigo region and hundreds more would be delivered under the Big Housing Build project.
"We are delivering more projects than ever before to provide more housing and support services to those in need," they said.
The state government has invested $110 million in the Greater Bendigo area through the Big Housing Build to create the 312 new homes, with 272 still to be built.
The spokesperson said the wait times for properties was dependent on a number of factors including types of properties available, the demand in the areas an applicant wants to live and how many people have been approved under the priority access.
Have you been impacted by the housing crisis? Let us know via editor@bendigoadvertiser.com.au, direct messenger on our Facebook account or through comments on our articles.
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