Michael inside his caravan. Credit:Justin McManus Hobsons Bay Caravan Park is closing, after the prime site was sold to developers for millions and rezoned for residential housing (with up to 10 per cent of it reserved for social housing). But with the closure goes housing for some of Melbourne's most vulnerable, low-income residents. Half-a-dozen residential caravan parks are closing or have closed in Melbourne in the past three years, including BP Caravan Park in Werribee South and Wantirna Caravan Park. Hundreds of dwellings are gone. And housing advocates say many of Hobsons Bay's former residents could end up sleeping rough in Melbourne's CBD.

The Hobsons Bay Caravan Park. Credit:Justin McManus Some have moved to other caravan parks. Most have accepted places in rooming houses, or emergency accommodation. "Each closure of a caravan park means one less option of last resort," says Jenny Smith, the head of the Council to Homeless Persons. "This explains why we're seeing more people sleeping rough on our streets." About 1400 people who live in Victoria's caravan parks used homeless services last year. The 120-odd Hobsons Bay residents have been given notice, and a small number will appear before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Wednesday to plead for extra time to find a new home.

Each closure of a caravan park means one less option of last resort. Jenny Smith About 20 per cent – those who are high-risk because of their age or health – have managed to secure a public spot, catapulted to the top of the 30,000-strong waiting list by their precarious situation.



Not that Hobsons Bay is being mourned exactly. The place was always scrappy and grim, a halfway point for woman fleeing family violence, those with serious mental and other health issues. People pushed right to the margins. But in Melbourne's unaffordable rental market it was cheap(ish). A caravan cost $130 per week to rent, with electricity on top of that. And for some like Russell, who does not want to use his surname, it was home for more than 25 years. In his late 60s now, he grew up in Braybrook and worked as a labourer, but lost his job because of his health and now has crippling depression. On the day The Age visited, the water pipe to Russell's caravan had been sawn through and he was unable to wash. He poked around at the back of his van, trying to reconnect it.

Because of his age and health, Russell is one of the lucky ones; he has been given a public housing unit in a nearby suburb. But failing that, his only option was to live in his car: "I'd fixed up my van and was going to sleep in that if I had to." The Victorian state government recently committed long-awaited funding to a huge social housing growth fund that will help supply 6000 dwellings. But these haven't been built yet, and can't ameliorate decades of under investment from governments. In its state budget submission the Council to Homeless Persons has called for 10,000 one-bedroom dwelling to be built over the next five years because that property type is in scarcest demand.

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