SOCIAL HOUSING
466. MR S.J. PRICE to the Minister for Housing:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's significant investment in delivering more social housing
across Western Australia. Can the minister update the house on the number of
homes that were added to the state's social housing stock in the last
final financial year, and can the minister outline to the house how many social
housing homes are planned to be delivered in the next couple of years?
Mr J.N.
CAREY replied:
I thank the member for his question.
As I have said many times in this house, our government has made a record
investment injection into social housing in Western Australia of $875 million,
with $2.4 billion over four years. We have faced an incredibly challenging
market. As I have put on the record multiple times, in this COVID world, with
large numbers of people either making Western Australia home or returning home,
we have a booming economy, large demand for housing and a heated construction
market. That is why, as I have said in this chamber, we are using every lever
we can to deliver additional social housing—that includes timber frame
homes, as we are knocking them out from concrete pours in four months. Speaking
to those in the construction sector indicates that this is an incredible
turnaround time.
We are also doing the modular
program. The Minister for Health is right: I love modular! Modular is
particularly great for the regions. Contrary to the member for Cottesloe's
attacks on modular, it is very much a growing industry in Western Australia,
and we have a dedicated modular program for regional Western Australia. We are
spot purchasing at a rapid rate. We are
converting old row housing that is surplus to needs into social housing. I am
really pleased to say that in the last financial year, we added 600
homes to the system, despite the significant construction market challenges
that we faced. We are still doing it right now, with another 860 homes under
contract and under construction. So we are getting on with the job. On top of
that, we are trying to grow the community housing sector by providing direct
grants—that includes 173 additional homes being created through those
direct grants. On homelessness, in the last financial year, we added 102 extra
crisis beds to the system.
Despite all the challenges we face
and despite our heated construction market, the message is very clear: as the
homelessness sector knows and as the housing sector knows, this government is
open and doing everything it can to drive and boost social housing supply in Western
Australia.