The NSW Budget offers free restaurant vouchers but "distressingly little" for Wagga's most vulnerable, according to support workers who say it has left women and homeless people low on its list of priorities.
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One of them is Wagga Central Vinnies president Peter Burgess, who said the budget fell "well short" of providing adequate social housing for those in need.
"The information I have is that there's about 700 people on the waiting list in Wagga, about 540 in the Albury region, and this is not going to make that big of a dent in it," Mr Burgess said.
"We don't feel it goes far and enough, and for us it's sad and unacceptable when there are solutions in hand."
In other news:
The NSW budget includes another $812 million across the state for new and upgraded social housing, which compares unfavourably to Victoria's $5.3 billion social housing commitment.
Mr Burgess often goes to give supplies to the homeless people over in Wilks Park, and he said their numbers have grown substantially during the COVID months.
Mr Burgess said he is afraid that homelessness problem will only grow worse in Wagga even after lockdown ends unless the government does more to plug the gaps in social housing.
"You can't get started on building a life unless you have somewhere to live. If you haven't got proper housing the kids don't have access to school, families can't come together, their health is affected, their ability to socialise is affected," Mr Burgess said.
"They often come from families who are struggling, and you're building a generation of homelessness. ACOSS has said we're looking at maybe a 24 per cent increase in homelessness over the next 12 months."
Wagga Women's Health Centre's health promotion worker Claire Kendall said female-dominated industries were the worst hit during COVID, including retail, hospitality, and tourism.
Ms Kendall said the centre had seen many women enter vulnerable domestic situations after having been laid off or reduced to unstable casual or temporary work.
"Ordinarily that's one of the things we see: women being impacted by financial hardship across the board, and that's certainly escalated due to COVID," Ms Kendall said.
The NSW budget includes a $5000 back-to-work grant to help reskill women who have lost their jobs due to lockdown.
However Ms Kendall said it came across as a token gesture from a government that was pouring billions into construction and other male-dominated industries that were not as affected by COVID.
"For the pandemic to have heavily affected female dominated sectors of work, it's surprising that the government's idea of recovery is construction-led and male-dominated-industry led," Ms Kendall said.
Housing minister Melinda Pavey said the budget would build more social housing, create jobs, and give a boost to the state economy.
"We're not just building hundreds of new homes to support disadvantaged and vulnerable people, we're also creating critically important jobs to support the economic recovery of the state through the construction industry," Mrs Pavey said.
"This investment will accelerate affordable housing supply, while boosting vital trade and valuable flow-on market activity."
Minister for Women Bronnie Taylor said the back-to-work grants would help upskill women and get them back in the workforce.
"There are so many costs involved in starting up again, so it is great that women looking to return to work will be able to use these grants towards things like training and education, office supplies, or whatever it is they need to get back into a job," Mrs Taylor said.
"The money can also be used for childcare, including before and after school care and transport, which will really help mothers overcome some of the biggest barriers to getting back into work."