Public housing waitlist nears its peak for Mid West Gascoyne region

Geraldton and the Mid West’s public housing waiting list continues to grow and is nearing a new peak despite State Government assurances of action amid a housing crisis. Alarming waitlist figures reveal the sheer extent of housing insecurity in Geraldton and the wider region. According to the Department of Communities, the number of people in the Greater Geraldton area waiting for public housing has jumped from 525 people in March 2019 to 791 in 2022, before dropping to 728 in March 2023. In the 10 months between March and December, an additional 92 people applied to be waitlisted for the Geraldton preference zone. By December 31, 2023, there were 820 applicants on the waitlist for public housing in Geraldton — 12 per cent rise in nine months or 56 per cent spike in almost four years. The priority waitlist had 152 applicants in March 2023, but 10 months later in December there were 190 — an additional 38 people seeking secure and long-term housing in Geraldton alone. At the end of December 2023, 1070 applicants were waiting for public housing in the Mid West Gascoyne, including 172 priority applications. The highest figure on record was from July 2022, when 1131 applicants were waitlisted for the Mid West Gascoyne region, including 194 priority applicants. The current waitlist for the Mid West Gascoyne region is about 60 people away from reaching a new peak, and given the rate of growth seen in 10 months, that unenviable record might not be far away. Regional and local data was not available before 2016-17 due to a change of reporting systems, however the Statewide waitlist peaked at 24,136 applications in November 2010. It is likely the highest waitlist figures for the Mid West Gascoyne were during this period. Of the 1033 public housing properties in the Geraldton preference zone, 123 are vacant — 92 of which are ”returning to stock” and are currently undergoing maintenance or refurbishment. The number of vacant properties has dropped since March last year, when 143 properties were sitting idle. A department spokesperson said the remainder of homes “have been offered to applicants from the public housing waitlist and are awaiting acceptance or are awaiting occupation after being accepted by applicants from the waitlist“. Housing Minister John Carey visited Geraldton on Wednesday to announce a $5.2 million investment to spot purchase more social housing to help curb rough sleeping in Geraldton. When questioned on the lengthy and increasing waitlist, Mr Carey said: “There shouldn’t be the assumption that if you’re on the waiting list, you’re homeless, the majority of people on the waiting list actually have houses or accommodation.” “A key stat in the last two financial years, we have increased across Western Australia, the number of applicants into public housing by 34 per cent. So you’ve actually seen an increase in the number of people or applicants being housed,” he said. There is more than 3376 people in social housing in the Mid West Gascoyne, 2032 of which are in the City of Greater Geraldton. Mr Carey said one of the harshest realities was facing such a tight construction market, which was putting constraints on the speed at which the State Government was able to spot purchase and build homes for social housing purposes. The department spokesperson said a fire in Geraldton’s Department of Communities’ housing office in August 2023 saw the application process extended for a few clients who lost records in the blaze, and who were required to obtain new copies of support letters written by their agencies.