- Housing shortage
Number of homeless soars as public waiting list swells

YASMINE PHILLIPS - Thursday, 22 October 2009

The number of people waiting for public housing in the South West has grown out 20 per cent with more than 1400 applicants in the line for Homeswest accommodation.

Figures supplied by the Department of Housing show the number of residents on the waiting list is up from 1183 in September last year to 1455 last month.

The latest statistics also reveal the South West was one of only two regions in WA to improve waiting times for public housing in 2008-09, despite experiencing an average wait of 111 weeks. Local residents waited an average of 125 weeks in 2007-08.

Department of Housing South West regional manager Kathryn Roberts said 26 Homeswest properties were vacant but most were expected to be available as soon as renovations and maintenance work had been completed.

Bunbury Housing Association executive housing officer Renate Dehaan said it was “totally unacceptable” for 26 properties to be sitting vacant across the South West because many people were “in desperate need of reasonable, affordable, secure housing”.

“I know there are a lot of changes occurring in the area of public and community housing, but it is the people on the ground who are really suffering while the system is trying to reorganise itself” she said.

If the department leased the 26 vacant properties to the association, Ms Dehaan said she would be able to fill them immediately.

She raised the issue with Housing Minister Troy Buswell at the weekend because the association had not been allocated any more housing stock or assistance, despite struggling with a waiting list of 200 needy people.

“We have the infrastructure to manage it and we do it well but we are not receiving any assistance or help from the department,” she said.

Mr Buswell said the 26 vacant properties represented just one per cent of public housing stock in the region, which was a “natural result of tenant turnover”.

“It is important to note that the average length of time a property was untenanted for was 3.9 days in the last quarter, which compares to 5.4 days at the same time last year and reflects the increase in demand fpr social housing,” he said.

There are about 2400 properties available for public housing across the South West.