Shelter WA calls for Homelessness Action

With just seven months until the state election, Shelter WA – the State’s peak homelessness action group – is calling for further government action to combat the housing and homelessness crisis which, it says, is set to be a defining issue at the polls.

Credit Andrea Popa

The peak body said this year’s Homelessness Week theme ‘Homelessness Action Now’ captured the urgency and scale of the work that was still ahead to end WA’s deepening crisis.

Shelter WA CEO Kath Snell said it is promising that the government had already committed to many goals required to end homelessness – it just needs to make greater progress, and all parties must be willing to do the same.

“Ending and preventing homelessness is completely within reach – we just need actions that match the goals, and for leaders to ‘act now’ with urgency,” Ms Snell said.

“Housing affordability and stability will likely be one of the most defining issues of the WA election – voters want and need the current and future government of our state to take bigger steps to fix the systemic causes of homelessness.

“WA has been hit with some of the biggest rent rises in the country. We know more renters are at risk of becoming homeless when they’re locked out of safe, affordable, decent homes.

“The Cook government’s policies to end homelessness, and the progress achieved by its dedicated housing and homelessness Minister, is setting a pathway for success but we need the right action to be taken swiftly.”

Shelter WA said the government’s aim to end rough sleeping by 2025 in its ‘All Paths Lead to a Home’ 2020-2030 Homelessness strategy is commendable. But there are just 21 weeks left before the new year, and rough sleeping has more than doubled across parts of the state in the past four years.

The latest figures in the By-Name List, which tracks homelessness in Perth, Geraldton, Bunbury, Mandurah and Rockingham, counted 943 rough sleepers in July 2024. This is down from its peak of 1,013 in February this year but still up on the 345 recorded in August 2020.

New analysis of the By-Name List also reveals only about two in five rough sleepers under 16 and over 55 are being housed.

Rough sleepers under 16 yo Number housed %
2024 (Jan-June)
144
58
40%

Rough sleepers over 55 yo Number housed %
2024 (Jan-June)
216
80
37%

“The government has been making welcome investments to address housing and homelessness and it’s positive to see rough sleeping in five key WA hotspots has dropped from its peak earlier this year,” Ms Snell said.

But there are still hundreds of people sleeping on the streets, in cars, parks and improvised dwellings who must be housed immediately.

“Rough sleeping is the most visible form of homelessness and the tip of our housing and homelessness crisis. There are also tens of thousands of people in WA who are couch-surfing, moving between temporary accommodation, and increasingly living in unaffordable and insecure rentals who desperately require stable, safe, affordable homes.

“We appreciate the government has been making an effort while they’ve been up against a worsening housing crisis – but the magnitude of this crisis is exactly why we need action that matches the scale.”

To end homelessness, Shelter WA says the State needs to:

* End rough sleeping

Rapid accommodation: 2,000 granny flats, tiny homes, convert vacant buildings and fast modular builds on government land by the end of the year

More support for vulnerable people: youth foyers and tenancy support services in private and social housing

Expand the AdvancetoZero framework across the whole state

* Fix the rental market

Reform the rental market as committed in 2019, ending no grounds evictions and introducing rent stabilisation urgently

Commit to building affordable rental supply, and boost supply through even stronger reforms to the short-term rental accommodation market. Airbnbs still outnumber private rentals by three times in WA

* Close the Housing Gap

Continue to grow and boost capacity of the ACCO sector, so that housing and services are culturally led

Accelerate repairs, and maintenance, and roll out an energy efficiency retrofit program for Aboriginal housing

* Build more social housing based on the evidence of real need

A long-term, evidence based commitment to increase social housing with effective mechanisms like mandatory targets in all new developments. WA needs to build at least 5,300 additional social and affordable homes each year for the next 15 years – that’s five times more social housing than currently being delivered

* Listen to the voices of lived experience

Create opportunities for Lived Experience contribution to system improvements through the creation of a Council to Homelessness (an independent consumer peak for people who have experienced homelessness and housing insecurity).

By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* If you’d like to COMMENT on this or any of our stories, don’t hesitate to email our Editor.

** WHILE YOU’RE HERE –