Calls for surplus land to be used for public housing as pandemic bites

Abstract

Victorian governments have sold off almost 600 hectares of surplus public land over the past two decades, according to new research which claims it could have been used to address the state’s public housing crisis.

The study comes as lord mayor Sally Capp, economist Saul Eslake, opposition housing spokesman Tim Smith, the Victorian Greens and the Victorian Council of Social Service call for new social housing to be built as part of Victoria’s economic response in the aftermath of COVID-19.