Minister Carey’s social housing initiatives: Are there any around Freo? We don’t know!

In a media statement sent to media on 1 June 2023, Housing Minister John Carey stated the State Government has reached a key housing reform delivery milestone, with more than 1,300 social homes added to the State’s public housing stock since its now record $2.6 billion investment in social housing and homelessness measures.

With more than 1,300 social homes added, the Minister said, the State Government has already reached its initial target set two years ago.

Additionally, the Minister said, in the face of a heated construction market, the State Government has established a number of alternative and flexible housing reform programs to bolster the supply of social housing across Western Australia, including:

* a State-wide small and medium builders panel which includes 85 builders across the State that are pre-approved for government work to further accelerate social housing delivery;

* utilising alternative construction methods including timber frame and modular builds;

* boosting the State’s highly successful spot purchasing program;

* converting surplus Government Regional Officer Housing stock; and

* driving planning reforms to boost housing supply throughout WA.

The $2.6 billion investment referred to is over four years and relates to housing and homelessness services, ‘including the delivery of around 4,000 social dwellings as well as refurbishments and maintenance work to many thousands more.’

The Minister further commented in his media statement that since the Government’s record investment in housing and homelessness measures it had added more than 1,300 social homes, with ‘more than 900 social homes currently under contract or construction’ and was using ‘every lever we can’ to bolster the supply of social housing across Western Australia.

Credit the deck.org.au

Fremantle Shipping News, which has followed the public policy issues of homelessness and social housing for some time, particularly from a greater Fremantle perspective, was pleased to learn of the Minister’s initiatives and to report on it, but was also keen to provide our readers with more detail on just where the 1300 social homes are located and the extent to which the Freo area has benefited from these initiatives. So we asked the Minister if he could advise where the 1300 social homes are located.

Specifically, on 2 June 2023, we enquired of the Minister –

1. As to the 1300 social homes mentioned prominently in the statement, in what suburbs or towns or municipalities are they located?
2. Are the ‘social homes’ referred to the same as the ‘social dwellings’ referred to later in the media statement, and if not, please explain the difference?
3. As to the 900 social homes ‘currently under contract or construction’, are they part of the 1300 social homes or additional, and if additional in which suburbs, towns or municipalities are they located?

The Minister’s senior media adviser kindly and quickly responded on 2 June 2023, to our questions by directing us to the Department of Communities media team but also helpfully confirming that a ‘social home’ is the same as a ‘social dwelling’; and that the ‘900 under contract or construction’ are in addition to the already delivered 1,300.

So we then redirected our primary questions about the location of the 1300 social homes and the 900 under contract or construction to the Department of Communities media team, whose media manager corporate communications kindly and quickly advised us on 2 June 2023, that we could attribute the following statement to a Department spokesperson –

‘The State Government is investing a record $2.6 billion over four years in housing and homelessness services, including the delivery of around 4,000 social dwellings as well as refurbishments and maintenance work to many thousands more.

Social housing delivery is generally aligned to demand across the State. Typically, this equates to approximately 70 per cent across the Perth metropolitan area and up to 30 per cent across regional WA.’

We were grateful for the further advice that 70% of the social housing is being delivered in Perth metro and 30% in the country. But it didn’t really tell us a lot about just where the social housing is located, especially given the current population of the Perth metro area is over 2.1 million people. And it told us nothing about whether some of the social housing might possibly be found in the greater Freo area.

So on 2 June 2023, we reverted to the media manager corporate communications at the Department of Communities and asked –

‘Is it possible to provide some more fine grained identification as to where in the ‘Perth metropolitan area’ and where in ‘regional’ they are to be found – even if it is by reference to broad upper house electoral regions, if not lower house electorates?’

As of today, our question remains unanswered.

So we can’t tell you if the greater Freo area is the beneficiary of any of the 1300 social homes Minister Carey, with justifiable pride, mentioned in his 1 June media statement, of if any of the additional 900 social homes currently under contract or construction are to be found around greater Freo.

We could of course make an FOI request for the info. Or perhaps hope that an interested MP will follow up with a PQ to the Minister.

But surely the Minister could just tell us. It really shouldn’t be that hard to be open about a matter of such public interest, should it?

* By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping News

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