Three candidates for the seat of Finniss attended yesterday’s forum at Victor Harbor on the housing crisis on the Fleurieu.

The forum, organised by the Fleurieu Foundation and the South Coast Progressive Women’s Group, invited the seven candidates for the state electorate of Finniss to discuss the issue and answer questions from the audience.

The Greens’ Anne Bourne, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation’s Carlos Quaremba and Independent for Finniss candidate Lou Nicholson attended, with apologies received from Liberal David Basham, the Nationals candidate Joe Ienco and Family First’s Dominic Carli. 

It had been planned for Labor’s housing spokesperson Nat Cook to join the meeting electronically but this was unable to go ahead.

Those who could attend, heard of elderly Goolwa residents being evicted from their homes of more than 20 years. 

Candidates told the audience of hearing from people whose rents had been doubled and of families facing the prospect of leaving the area.

The forum also heard stories of incredible generosity and a community trying to work together to help people to stay in their local area, as local prices and rent reach the highest levels in regional South Australia.

Anne, a registered nurse working at Goolwa Medical Centre, visits the elderly in their homes as part of her role. She told the candidates that she knows of at least six elderly individuals or couples who need to be out of their homes by June and have nowhere to go.

“It's becoming a major issue," she said.

“We’re getting people coming into our doctors, and to me because I’m a senior support nurse for the practice, in tears because they’re having to move out of their homes.”

“Goolwa is really struggling.”

“I don’t know what the answer is. A lot say they need to move elsewhere because the shacks are being bulldozed, mansions are being built and there’s no way they’re going to afford the rent.”

Community organisation Junction says it has worked closely with 224 people – 98 men and 126 women – through its homelessness services across the Fleurieu over the past six months.

In a statement, Junction’s CEO Maria Palumbo said around two thirds of those people were in crisis situations with most already rough sleeping.

 “The situation is certainly getting worse,” Ms Palumbo said.

“We are seeing more families who are now homeless – single parents often with two or three children living in caravans and even cars.”

 Ms Palumbo said the key barriers were both affordability and accessibility. “Because of the increase in the price of property, many owners are taking the opportunity to sell their homes or raise rents. This means a lot of people who have previously had long term, stable housing haven’t had leases renewed and there is literally nowhere for them to go.

 “Even if you have the money, finding a property to rent in the region can be extremely tough. We’ve seen some people offer a year’s rent in advance and still get knocked back. So if you are on a fixed income with a family, it makes it virtually impossible.”

Ms Palumbo said addressing housing affordability, including incentives for private investors and developers to create build to rent housing, was critical.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation candidate Carlos Quaremba told attendees that, as a Goolwa based builder, he knew first-hand the difficulties being faced by people currently trying to build new homes in the area.

“There’s a massive shortage of houses,” he said.  

“Material costs have gone up exponentially, there’s a shortage of land and the secret is out. We live in a great place.”

He said there was also a “massive skill shortage” and a need for apprenticeships, which was a focus for his party.

He said he had recently spoken to three local families facing homelessness and had also reached out to the owner of a local motel that is providing temporary crisis accommodation in four of its 10 rooms.

He said the owner indicated he was willing to give the whole motel over to this service, if he was supported by the government and would possible even build additional rooms.

Independent candidate Lou Nicholson said she had recently been contacted by a Goolwa woman with a disabled daughter whose rent had been doubled and was now paying nearly $600 a week for a three-bedroom home because of a lack of alternative suitable accommodation.

She said it was important to work towards stopping long term accommodation agreements from breaking down.

She told the forum that Finniss needed a local representative who recognised the urgency of the situation and also desperately needed more social housing.  She said an independent member would be able to “make more noise” about the housing situation and not be made to keep to a party line.

Greens candidate Anne Bourne, a practising psychologist in Goolwa, told the forum that over the past 12 months she has been helping several older women with issues arising from losing their stable, long term rental accommodation.

She said one of her clients has real fears that she will end up living out of her car.

Ms Bourne said even if unsuccessful in the March 19 state election she will continue to push for a solution to the housing crisis, particularly in Goolwa, which she says also desperately needs more public transport.

Speaking from the audience, the Mayor of Victor Harbor, Moira Jenkins said land needed to be made available for affordable housing and the rezoning process takes a “awful lot of time and an awful lot of red tape”.

“Being able to rezone land so that we can actually put affordable housing on there is really important,” she said.

“I’ve been discussing with a local manufacturer who is manufacturing small little houses and they are ready to go with houses that are around $50 000.”

“They need land to put it on.”

A plan to rezone 565 ha of farmland north of Goolwa in the Alexandrina Council area was abandoned in 2021 after considerable negative feedback from the local community. The area would have potentially allowed another 1300 homes to be built in the town. 

Apologies for the forum were received from Liberal candidate David Basham who provided a three-page statement on the government’s housing policy.

In it, he said that there are currently 28 public houses, 224 community houses and three specialised houses in the Finniss electorate. He said “unlike the previous Labor governments” no public housing in the Alexandrina and Victor Harbor council areas had been sold since the Marshall government took office.

He also said his government had spent record funding on homelessness and public housing maintenance and a “multi-million dollar spend on building affordable housing”.