Victoria’s public housing shortage has worsened, with more than 1000 people being added to the waiting list.

There were 35,027 people on the public housing waiting list in the March quarter, up from 33,916 in the December quarter, according to state figures released on Thursday.

The 3.3 per cent increase comes after the state government pledged to renovate 9500 public housing properties over five years. But the plan has been criticised for not including funding for new properties to meet the growing demand.

Housing Minister Wendy Lovell pointed to an overall 15 per cent drop in the waiting list since she came to power in 2010. There were also 169 fewer people on the early waiting list, or those in urgent need of public housing, since the last quarter, she said.

''There is still work to be done to get the waiting list down, but by reviewing vacancy rates, turnover procedures, and by working harder with those who have been waiting the longest, we are seeing results,'' she said.

Community Housing Federation of Victoria chief executive Lesley Dredge cast doubt on those figures, saying thousands more had given up on waiting.

''For a lot of people, they don’t put their names down, even though they are eligible, because they could be waiting for up to 10 or 15 years,'' she said.

''Would you be waiting if you were number 35,028 on a list?''

Opposition housing spokesman Richard Wynne criticised the government for releasing the figures just  before a long weekend, and for not including the previous quarter's results, which show the increase in the waiting list.

''It’s a massive blow-out,'' he said. ''In the past three budgets, this government has not invested one extra dollar in public and social housing – and this is the outcome.''

Read the article as it appeared online in the Age: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/states-public-housing-shortage-worsens-with-more-joining-queue-20140424-zqyxe.html#ixzz308hWGoqw