AS the housing crisis continues and demand for homelessness services soars across Western Australia, a 25% boost in funding is urgently needed.
According to the latest data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 5,100 people are currently being assisted by specialist homelessness services in WA, this up 27.5% or 1,100 people since the 2017-18 financial year.
Over the 2022-23 financial year, 1,100 people reported they were sleeping rough in the month before they sought help, this is almost double the 553 recorded five years ago.
With demand surging, 75 requests for help from homelessness services couldn’t be met every single day, an increase of 32% from five years ago.
The data shows that the Cook government’s $24.4 million Rent Relief Program and $47.6 million funding for 15 homelessness services—while welcomed by the sector—hasn’t gone far enough to address the crisis.
Shelter WA, a peak body advocating for solutions to homelessness and housing needs, is calling for an average boost in funding of 25%.
“Right now, we have a perfect storm of soaring rents, rock bottom vacancy rates, and a cost-of-living crisis which is plunging more and more people into distress. People who have never asked for help in their lives are experiencing homelessness for the first time,” said Kath Snell, CEO at Shelter WA.
“Without a significant funding boost that actually meets demand, services will have to continue turning desperate people away, including women and children fleeing domestic violence.”
Additionally, Shelter WA is calling for the government to fund interim rapid accommodation solutions while more social housing is being built.
| Year | 2017-18 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
| Number of clients being assisted per day | 4,000 | 4,700 | 5,100 |
| Number of those clients who report having slept rough in the past month | 553 | 810 | 1,100 |
| Number of requests for assistance unable to be met per day | 57 | 74 | 75 |
This should include the conversion of vacant or underutilised properties, prefabricated or tiny homes on vacant government land and granny flats for social housing tenants to accommodate extended family.
“The recent changes to regulations making the building of granny flats easier have been welcomed, and help support this advocacy ask,” added Snell.
“If we simply wait for long-term social and affordable housing to be built, we fear the number of Western Australians falling into rough sleeping and housing insecurity will continue to rise.”
Just last week, the Albanese and Cook governments announced a partnership to deliver more than 200 new homes in Perth for key workers and Western Australians in need.
While real expenditure by the WA government into social housing has increased to $353.5 million in 2022-23, leading to a boost of 660 dwellings over the last year, demand is outpacing these increases.
Shelter WA has highlighted that this increase is less impactful due to it coming after several years of underinvestment, which saw social housing dwelling numbers decline.
Meaning there are still 1,142 fewer public housing dwellings across Western Australian than in 2017.
This is paired with rocketing demand, with the social housing waitlist growing by 1,425 applications over the two years to September 2023.
Shelter WA is also urging the government to provide a one-off payment of approximately $30.75 million to homelessness services to address indexation shortfalls over the past 10 years.
“We must address this crisis with long-term and short-term solutions, including deploying rapid accommodation to get people out of precarious housing and into safe homes,” said Snell.
“We recognise all that this government has already done, but the government’s bold target to end rough sleeping by 2025 also requires more investment into these solutions.”
Report on Government Services 2024 data also shows that, over 2022-23, 50.4% of all homelessness services clients in WA were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander despite making up only 4% of the population.
“We are seeing a significant increase in the number of visitors and also the complexity of their needs,” said Merri Best, CEO of Goldfields Indigenous Housing Organisation.
“With high rents and almost zero available properties in our region, we are assisting a new cohort of people who have never asked us for help before. Everyday families and individuals are turned away because services are stretched to the limit. We desperately need at least two more 24/7 crisis centres and more accommodation options.”
According to a report by Homelessness Australia from last August year, between December 2022 and March 2023, the number of people seeking homelessness assistance was up 7.5% or an additional 6,658 individuals, reflecting the need for an additional $450 million in homelessness assistance.
