Reimagining What’s Possible

On Monday 6 October, more than 350 community and social service leaders from across Victoria came together at Melbourne Town Hall for the first major gathering of its kind since COVID.

It was a chance to talk, listen and plan, to strategise about the big issues facing our sector and the communities we serve.

We’re incredibly grateful for the insights and perspectives provided by an amazing lineup of speakers and facilitators. Emceed by Wren Rapture, this included Treasurer Jaclyn Symes, Opposition Leader Brad Battin, Uncle Perry Wandin, Kos Samaras,Tony Barry, Prof. Jo Barraket AM, Dr Jill Gallagher AO, Sarah Davies AM, Ahmed HassanOAM, Margherita Coppolino, Dr Alison Roberts, Stefan Gruenert and Chris Christoforou.

And as Matthew Schulz said in a wrap-up of the day for the Institute of Community Directors Australia, the formal panels provided a springboard for what was in many ways the main event: “a chance for community leaders to converge to consider the sector’s challenges and create momentum for coordinated action.”

In four afternoon workshops, provocateurs Bill Mithen, Noel Lim, Erin Turner and Ilo Diaz inspired big thinking and bold discussion in themed sessions designed to encourage cross-sector collaboration..

The expertise and insights contributed to this event will be used to shape our shared advocacy and priorities for 2026 and beyond. If you would like to learn more, we’ve created this post-event summary that highlights what we heard across the sessions.

Thank you to everyone who made the VCOSS Community Sector Summit so special.

VCOSS Submission to the Legislative Assembly Environment and Planning Committee Inquiry into the Supply of Homes in Regional Victoria

Victoria’s Housing Statement and the Plan for Victoria recognise the need to sustainably grow housing stock in regional Victoria.
Currently, regional Victoria faces shortages across the housing continuum.

VCOSS is particularly concerned about the under-supply of social housing following decades of under-investment in this essential infrastructure. Social housing (public housing and community housing) is a crucial safeguard for people who cannot access the private housing market or who struggle to hold onto private market housing, because of high costs/low incomes, lack of appropriate or accessible homes, discrimination or complex needs.

In regional Victoria (as in other parts of the state), people who are eligible for social housing, but unable to access it because of insufficient supply, are pushed into homelessness or the bottom of the private rental market where they struggle to meet housing costs. This puts more pressure on temporary emergency accommodation, already in short supply in regional Victoria. It also increases competition for private rentals, driving up rents.

Safe, accessible, affordable, secure and healthy homes are the foundation for a good life. VCOSS members highlight challenges in supporting clients to achieve their goals because of insufficient housing – for example, escaping family violence, achieving family reunification for parents and children involved with Child Protection, and sustainable exits from prison are often contingent on access to housing.

Challenges in regional housing systems are also a drag on regional economies. For example, community sector employers in regional Victoria cite housing shortages and housing affordability as a key constraint for efficient social services delivery in regional Victoria. Those struggling to fill vacant staff roles often identify housing as one of the barriers to attracting and retaining workers.

In this submission, VCOSS recommends measures to:

• Significantly increase social housing.
• Address key workforce shortages through appropriately defined and targeted affordable housing initiatives.
  We particularly highlight that how and where we deliver these new homes matters.

This submission outlines how Victoria can achieve optimal housing outcomes by:

• Ensuring we build dense, interconnected, and sustainable regional centres where communities have access to essential services and amenities.
• Addressing systemic housing injustices experienced by Victoria’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, by supporting the implementation of self-determined housing and homelessness solutions.

In developing this submission, we also heard from regional VCOSS members about the challenges that regional Victoria faces in relation to climate change and disaster preparedness, and how these must be factored into future housing decisions.

To this end, our submission also includes recommendations to:

• Use contemporary data that accounts for climate change and future threats to inform decisions.
• Build future-proofed homes to ensure long-term safety.
• Proactively plan for temporary housing following disasters.

Finally, in this submission, we detail the need to invest in refuge and fit-for-purpose crisis accommodation for family violence victim survivors. We thank regional VCOSS members who shared their expertise and community insights to help inform this submission.