The housing crisis has reached boiling point in Melbourne’s biggest growth corridor, with the council considering drastic action to help desperate families.

A housing shortage in Melbourne’s fastest growing municipality has forced the local council to investigate repurposing land to provide “crisis accommodation” for desperate families.

Between 2017 and 2021, family violence increased by 43.1 per cent in Wyndham — nearly double that of Victoria in the same period, while a recent Housing Affordable Housing Strategy for Wyndham released last year found one and two bedroom homes make up about eight per cent of the housing market, while social housing took up 1.1 per cent.

The report predicts a shortfall of more than 11,700 homes by 2036.

Wyndham — which has a population of more than 300,000 — is expected to be home to more than half a million people by 2040.

Cr Robert Szatkowski said the council should consider using its own assets to help alleviate the accommodation shortage.

“While we continue to advocate to the state government to provide more affordable and social housing, we can also explore options closer to home,” he said.

“We can investigate the potential of using existing residential property holdings or where possible developing council land, property and air space assets to increase support for affordable housing supply.

“I believe acting now is a solid investment in Wyndham’s future … the community expects us to do something and we need to work together to increase Wyndham’s housing diversity and as the population grows this becomes more urgent”.

Cr Szatkowski also highlighted a “lack” of emergency accommodation options to assist services like Orange Door in Wyndham for people impacted by family violence.

“We already hold residential properties which could be utilised for a better social purpose … we can bridge that gap with properties we hold,” he said.

A report will be presented to council containing future recommendations at its September meeting.

Wyndham-based property manager and Marker Realter founder Kazween Marker said a combination of price increases and a housing shortage had created a difficult situation.

“Price has definitely shot up with an increase interest rates, especially with rental prices, but there is a shortage of properties as well to some extent and there’s a lot of people on Centrelink or benefits that tend to struggle a little more,” she said.

“Last week there was a property in Point Cook … we had a three-bedroom town house (for rent) and everyone was willing to go from the word go. We had 57 inquiries and for an agent to go through 57 applications, you have to make sure your application looks very good on paper”.