Former sale yards at Latrobe Street Ballarat are thought likely to be a likely location for the Victoria 2026 Athletes Village©City of Ballarat

Q Shelter, a body working to address housing needs and homelessness in Queensland, has warned organisers of the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games to learn lessons from Gold Coast 2018.

Fiona Caniglia, chief executive of Q Shelter, a non-profit organisation, has told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the 2018 Gold Coast Games was a "missed opportunity".

In 2018, the Athletes' Village was built at Griffith University but Caniglia believes that insufficient attention was paid to the provision of affordable housing.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has pledged that the 2026 Games will "deliver a legacy that includes social and affordable housing", with Villages to be built in Geelong, Bendigo and Morwell in Gippsland and Ballarat.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures listed 122,494 "experiencing homelessness" on the night of the 2021 Census.

A total of 23 per cent of those without a home were aged 12 to 24.

Caniglia has recommended that 25 to 30 per cent of accommodation built for the 2026 Games should be designated as "social housing in perpetuity".

She has called for the problem of homelessness to be addressed before the 2026 Games take place.

Q Shelter chief executive Fiona Caniglia has advised Victoria 2026 to earmark at least 25 percent of any Games accommodation for social housing ©Q Shelter
Q Shelter chief executive Fiona Caniglia has advised Victoria 2026 to earmark at least 25 percent of any Games accommodation for social housing ©Q Shelter

"Work now to have a longer-term, supportive housing solution so that it's not just a crisis response about where you put people," Caniglia said.

"It's about saying these Games are going to see an overall reduction in complex homelessness because we've made sure people are looked after long before the games start."

Last week, the Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA) Victoria also highlighted the need for providing more social housing in conjunction with the Games.

Meanwhile, Ballarat Mayor Des Hudson has insisted that "all options must be on the table" when a decision is made about constructing the Athletes' Village.

"You don't want something that's rushed, you don't want something that doesn't leave the right legacy," Hudson said.

"I'm very open-minded in terms of what it can be, if there's a mix of temporary that can be re-located off-site afterward, if it gives us a better outcome going forward, then that's absolutely something we should be looking at and willing to accept."

The Victoria 2026 Games are scheduled to open on March 17 2026.