SOCIAL HOUSING ECONOMIC RECOVERY PACKAGE
700. Hon Dr BRAD PETTITT to the Leader of the House
representing the Minister for Housing:
I refer to the social housing
economic recovery package.
(1) How many home builds have been
completed as part of this package to date?
(2) How many of the completed homes
are currently tenanted?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of this question.
(1)–(2) The
McGowan government is investing $2.1 billion into social housing over the next
four years, which includes the recently announced record investment of $875 million
as part of the 2021–22 state budget. This is the single largest one-off
investment into social housing in the state's history and will provide
an immediate boost to social housing.
The social housing economic recovery
package is substantially a refurbishment and maintenance package to enable
these homes to remain part of our state's social housing stock for many
years to come. A total of 1 238 maintenance
works or refurbishments have been completed under the package to date,
including in regional Western Australia.
Significant planning work has been undertaken to facilitate delivery of SHERP.
The first two properties, as part of the
first tranche of builds, were completed at the end of July 2021 and are now tenanted. Across all funding streams,
including business-as-usual funding, a further 653 social housing
properties are currently under construction. Existing funding streams have been
recalibrated to deliver more social housing
immediately in response to the challenges currently faced from the heated
construction market. The use of spot purchasing and modular and
prefabricated construction will deliver quicker to market social housing.