A Brief History

During 1993/94 a number of government, non-government, local government and interested parties met to address the looming housing crisis in the South West/Greater Bunbury Region. A needs study confirmed the lack of affordable, secure, good standard housing, which led to the formation of the Bunbury Housing Association (BHA).

To facilitate the growth of this Community Housing Project, Renate Dehaan, the Executive Housing Officer was employed in 1997. It took a full year before the first 4 houses were obtained and by then the exasperated EHO was beginning to feel that this was a “phantom housing association”. In hindsight she recognises these difficulties as the birth pangs of all new beginnings.

The challenges of establishing an organisation in a regional area are compounded by distance, isolation, lack of resources, established, entrenched and suspicious attitudes. Nevertheless, at this point in time we can say that BHA is making a significant contribution to the South West Region. BHA now houses over 170 adults and children in 47 houses/units plus 18 single men in one Boarding House. This includes 7 houses in Busselton and 12 Community Disability Houses. BHA also manages the Lotteries House Complex of up to 12 tenants and recently managed a small Housing Co-operative of 8 houses. Both of these are seperately funded projects.

BHA works closely with support agencies such as LAMP, Pathways and South West Mental Health and Disability Services Commission who provide tenants with more personal support.

BHA firmly believes in establishing a good relationship with the tenants based on friendly, empathetic and clear communication and prompt service. This attitude is emphasised by the fact that we are committed to and monitored by the West Australian Code of Practice.

BHA has been the recipient of a Lotterywest Grant to refurbish the Boarding House and update all computer equipment in the office.

BHA is looking forward to a future of continual growth on every level of its existence in order to best fulfil the housing needs of the South West region. This also means that we acknowledge the evolutionary processes that are involved from an organisational perspective, for example: BHA is about to change its property/tenancy management system to a very comprehensive, nationally recognised property/tenancy management system which will save time and effort and therefore money in the long run.