Experts have reviewed the situations many Victorian public housing residents found themselves in during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The High-Risk Accommodation Response program was co-designed by the Victorian Dept of Families, Fairness and Housing and community health providers across the state, to engage with and respond to the needs of vulnerable communities during the multiple COVID peaks and outbreaks in these settings.

The voices of more than 800 residents reveal the challenges, their fears, and the strength and resilience that helped many residents prevail, despite significant adversities.

The study sought to understand residents’ health literacy, including what they knew and had been told about COVID-19 and keeping safe. 

The study also worked with frontline community health workers to uncover what they did to understand residents’ requirements and assist them.

At times when the risk of being infected with COVID-19 was ever-present, for some people, their daily struggles with social, economic and physical conditions, including family violence, poverty, food insecurity, loneliness, drug and alcohol use, took precedence. 

A key finding of the research is that local community health services are critical for successful communication and engagement in these settings.

Residents have profoundly diverse needs and flexibility of both the range of services, and ways to access these services, contributes to receiving the right service. The project has had immediate impact on many residents through enabling frontline workers to better understand the needs of the residents, assess whether services were meeting their requirements and realign services and delivery while operating within a major public health emergency.

The report, Actions to address health literacy and equity in social housing in Victoria, makes recommendations for actions on how governments and health services need to respond, and what can be done to understand and support people living in public housing settings who may experience overwhelming challenges. 

These actions include improving the health literacy responsiveness of the system, reducing digital exclusion, ensuring proactive and flexible interactions and improving the connections between the different parts of government and services sectors.