BSL: Victorian govt called on to save lives from inefficient homes
The Victorian government is facing calls to save lives by backing a charity group’s year-long efforts to bring better energy efficiency to homes of people with severe health conditions.
The government is facing calls to help fund solar and other interventions for homes with insulation so bad extreme heat or cold could kill the residents inside.
The not-for-profit group, plus building experts, have renewed warnings that older homes across the state are actively harming their residents’ health – and could even lead to some people dying.
In the past year, the Brotherhood of St Laurence’s Climate Safe Homes pilot program upgraded 126 homes across Melbourne for people with chronic health conditions and living on low incomes, with improvements including solar panels, airconditioning and insulation.
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BSL senior policy and research officer and climate lead David Bryant said the results had reinforced concerns poorly insulated homes could be killing some of the state’s most vulnerable.
“Modern ones are certainly better, but pre-2007 homes are generally a lot worse,” Mr Bryant said.
“And that’s going to be the vast majority of the stock for a long time, so it’s really important that we retrofit them.”
The program led to improved temperatures in 90 per cent of homes, with summer comfort ratings for participants doubling and winter cosiness boosted by 25 per cent.
Solar panels added to homes for a few thousand dollars are making life-changing differences to some of Melbourne’s most vulnerable residents.
Four in five of those involved had improved health outcomes, notably better sleep and mobility.
“A lot of people don’t have money lying around to upgrade their homes even though it would lower their bills and help them live more healthily in the longer term,” Mr Bryant said.
“If you roll the program out at scale, you could certainly expect to save some lives.”
Noting that the charity supported other government initiatives, including the phasing out of gas, he said it was still worth recognising upfront costs for upgrading were a barrier for potentially tens of thousands of Victorians — and a government expansion of their scheme could save the state’s coffers.
“There’s savings to the government, as they pay 17 per cent of a lot of people’s bills, and there’s health care savings from hospitals and the broader economy,” Mr Bryant said.
Melbourne resident Greer is unable to earn a substantive wage as a result of complex medical issues including past cancer battles, auto-immune disease and muscular-neurological issues.
Greer at her Melbourne home, where she can now afford to operate heating and cooling.
She is among those to have solar panels and draft testing technology installed in her home as part of the BSL program, and said in addition to halving her energy bill it had also benefited her health conditions.
“I had scenarios where I was choosing between food and running the heater,” she said.
“And on the hot days, the heat can make me quite ill. Now I can handle those days better, without fearing what it will cost.”
In the past there had been instances when Greer had been unable to afford repairs for heating or cooling and escaping the home’s high or freezing temperatures had required a specialist carer to assist her going somewhere cooler.
“And that means the government was paying someone to help take me somewhere to help me cool off,” she said.
“Anything built in the 1970s is not designed for people in my situation.”
Sustainable Homes Melbourne founder Simon Clark said the average Australian home only scored about a 1.7 on the nation’s energy efficiency scorecard, NatHERS.
Melbourne’s Jack Furphy and Geua Montana spent six figures making their home more energy efficient in 2023. Picture: Mark Stewart.
Today, the minimum standard in Victoria is a 7.
With virtually no insulation in them, homes from the 1970s through to the early 2000s often have temperatures similar to outside — and posed significant health risks in extreme conditions if residents could not afford sufficient heating or cooling.
Noting that it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to retrofit a home, the builder said it would take decades for gentrification to upgrade them without government input.
“It’s highly probable that you would save lives, by expanding the program,” Mr Clark said.
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