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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 452 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 9 August 2022 by Ms C.M. Rowe

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

HOMELESSNESS — BOORLOO BIDEE MIA SERVICE

452. Ms C.M. ROWE to the Minister for Homelessness:

I refer to the McGowan Labor government's unprecedented commitment to reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness. Can the minister outline to the house how the groundbreaking first-of-its-kind Boorloo Bidee Mia facility in Perth is delivering life-changing support to vulnerable Western Australians?

Mr J.N. CAREY replied:

I thank the member for her question.

Boorloo Bidee Mia is an incredible story. Last week, as part of Homelessness Week, I attended the accommodation service to note an important milestone—that is, a year since its operation. I am very pleased to report that it is at near capacity, with 64 of the 66 rooms now filled with people who were rough sleeping who have been referred there. It is part of a bigger picture and bigger investment. We are investing $225 million in this financial year in homelessness support and programs. We are trying to use every lever we can, including innovative models like Boorloo Bidee Mia. Why is it so special? It is because for the first time we have had an Aboriginal-controlled organisation that has had oversight to provide culturally appropriate accommodation that is actually suited to providing intense wraparound support services. The referrals have been coming through from our boosted outreach homeless and emergency accommodation response team—HEART. We also boosted that to seven days a week. This model is working. It is working very well and we are seeing people transition into accommodation. We also know that the people going there do suffer, have deep trauma, and may have become institutionalised by living on the street. I want to give a shout-out to one of the residents I met—it was Dwayne—who told his story to the media last week. He had been in BBM for five months. He acknowledged that it had been a major change for his life, and he was able again to see his children. This is one of the incredible success stories. It might not make sexy headlines, but this is changing people's lives. I want to acknowledge the former minister who had responsibility, Simone McGurk, for persisting with this vision. I note that while we sought to make this model work, it was relentlessly attacked by the opposition. They said at every opportunity: fill it overnight and ignore all the key advice that said that for the model to work, we had to do it over a period of time. That is what Hon Steve Martin said very clearly on the record. This is my point about members of the opposition when it comes to homelessness: they are lazy and do not listen to the advice from the sector. They could not even be bothered, out of 15 members, to send one to the most critical Mission Australia Christmas lunch. Not one out of the 15 could be bothered to go. That is how lazy this opposition is and why they have no credibility with the homelessness sector. I want to give a big shout-out to Daniel Morrison and the Wungening team, and all the staff at Boorloo Bidee Mia. Thank you for persisting; thank you for not losing confidence and hope when the opposition threw every attack at you. We applaud you and thank you for your efforts. This model is a great success to their leadership and their efforts.