SOCIAL HOUSING —
DWELLINGS — SOUTH WEST REGION
672. Hon DIANE EVERS to the minister representing the
Minister for Housing:
I refer to the minister's
media statements of 7 June 2020 and 3 December 2019 on an additional 750 in
total social housing dwellings in Western Australia.
(1) How many of these dwellings will be located in the
South West Region, broken down into Augusta–Margaret River,
Busselton–Dunsborough, Bunbury, Albany, Denmark, Manjimup–Pemberton,
and other?
(2) How many social housing homes
are there currently in the Augusta–Margaret River region?
(3) What is the
current number of people on the social housing waitlist and the average waiting
time for a home in the Augusta–Margaret River region?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided to me by
the Minister for Housing.
(1) I note the
honourable member's question relates to two housing stimulus packages.
The housing and homelessness investment package, announced on 3 December 2019,
will deliver approximately 300 new social housing dwellings to address the
shortage of appropriate housing for singles, seniors and small families on the
public housing priority waitlist. This package also seeks to address housing
affordability, with $19.2 million allocated to support 200 eligible
low-to-moderate income owners in achieving their home ownership dream through
the department's Shared Home Ownership program. Eight dwellings have
been identified for development within the South West Region, specifically in
Bunbury, Busselton and Margaret River.
The social housing economic recovery
package, announced by the Premier on 7 June 2020, will deliver approximately
250 new builds and off-the-plan construction-ready purchases across
metropolitan and regional areas as part of its housing program. Land asset
identification and allocation is underway and the final quantum and specific
location of the sites by region will be determined over the coming months.
(2) As at 31 May
2020, there were 156 social housing properties in the Augusta–Margaret
River region, being 100 public housing properties and 56 community housing
properties.
(3) As at 31 May
2020, there were 10 applications on the public housing waitlist that listed the
Augusta area as the preferred zone and 42 applications that listed Margaret
River as the preferred zone. The average wait time for public housing in the
Augusta zone is 52 weeks. The average wait time for public housing in the
Margaret River zone is 50 weeks.