Cook Government urged to do more to cut down social housing wait as list for priority accommodation grows

A mother of three, who has resorted to sleeping on her friend’s couch to avoid living in her car, says she has little hope of obtaining State housing in the face of a two-year backlog in applications. Bianca Moore feels little hope she will be housed, after receiving an email from the housing department that said it was now housing those who joined the list in 2023. She says the ever-growing waitlist for social housing has left her feeling helpless. Ms Moore has been homeless since March, when she fled her home due to family domestic violence, and has no family network in WA to fall back on. She is now one of nearly 8000 people on the priority social housing waitlist, which has seen an increase of more than 1600 applicants on the 12 months prior, the State Opposition has warned. “It makes me feel like I’m in despair, like there’s nothing I can do,” Ms Moore said. “What else or what further trauma does my family have to go through to actually have housing? What more do we have to go through to get a house?” Ms Moore wants to see the Government take more action taken to reduce the waitlist time. “What they say and what they do are two completely different things,” she said. “It’s Australian families like mine who are copping it with just their words, I’m yet to see any action taken.” Shadow Housing and Homelessness Minister David Bolt said the Government needed to adopt a more ambitious target - then deliver it. “We need more ambitious targets, at the moment about 3.7 per cent of the total stock is social housing,” he said. “But is that enough? The Government wants to increase that, but they’re certainly not doing enough to increase it. “The community housing groups are calling for targets of 5 or 6 per cent, so I think we need a more aggressive and targeted approach.” Roger Cook said his Government was acting to bring more homes onto the market. “We have invested $5.8 billion in housing and homelessness measures since 2021 and that includes delivering more than 3500 social homes, a further 1000 (are) under contract or construction,” he said. “We’re partnering with the Albanese Government to deliver almost 1800 more social and affordable homes in WA in addition to that.” In October, The West Australian revealed that more than 3000 people were facing a wait of more than five years on the public housing waitlist. According to figures released in Parliament, 20,264 people were on the public rental waitlist as of June 30, waiting an average of three years. More than 15 per cent were waiting more than five years.