PHOTO
Outrage has grown at the State Government's slow response to bushfire recovery with the discovery of four portable homes kept in storage outside Benalla.
The four portable homes are stored within the DEECA grounds on Sydney Road in Benalla within view of a side road.
A whistleblower brought the mothballed homes to the attention of Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland two weeks ago.
Ms Cleeland said the demountable homes had been in storage since the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires and that another 16 were located elsewhere in the state.
"I did some investigations and you wouldn't believe it, it was in my bloody backyard here in Benalla," she said.
"Four modular homes have been sitting here for several years."
In a Facebook post video, Ms Cleeland slammed Premier Jacinta Allan for spending taxpayers' money on building more modular homes without delivering those in storage to families in need, and questioned the competence of EMV, the Premier, and Minister for Natural Disaster Recovery Vicki Ward.
The government announced on 14 May nearly $33m to provide over 100 temporary modular homes for people without adequate insurance and whose home was significantly damaged or destroyed.
It was part of a new $37m relief package.
Ms Cleeland said that although she was 'sick of this', she would continue to plead with Ms Allan on behalf of the reported 90 people who are still homeless after the January bushfires.
"Premier, stop building new homes before you've even deployed the ones that are already here," Ms Cleeland said.
"Get these homes out of this lot and onto people's land before winter.
"Stop being cruel, stop being dysfunctional, allow people to have a home."
Ms Cleeland also said the 100 proposed homes would take over six months to build while fire-affected residents were living in 'unsafe' conditions.
"These ones (are) already built, ready to go," she said.
"I know of more than 20 of these modular homes sitting in storage across Victoria, while bushfire survivors are going cold, living in tents, heading into winter."
She said affected people had 'already gone through enough' and that the oncoming cold weather made conditions unsafe.
"Do not put my community in a bloody caravan for winter."
The Premier's office was contacted for comment.

