PILOT HOUSING PROGRAM — GERALDTON
334. Ms L. DALTON to the Minister for Homelessness:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's significant efforts to increase the availability of social
housing across Western Australia, particularly in our regions. Can the minister
update the house on the pilot housing program that is being launched in Geraldton
and outline how it will support vulnerable rough sleepers and help break the
cycle of homelessness?
Mr J.N.
CAREY replied:
I thank the member for her question
and for her advocacy on local issues, particularly the suburb of Spalding.
I often start an answer by talking
about the big picture, but today I want to reverse that and talk about a personal
story. I had the honour to go to Geraldton
with the member for Geraldton to meet with a woman called Natasha. She
has experienced homelessness and rough sleeping for a significant period. In
fact, she experienced homelessness in Kalgoorlie, in Perth and then in
Geraldton. It was an honour to listen to her story and to have her share her
story with me. She had her beautiful dog,
Tippy, with her. As she told me her story, tears came down from her eyes. They
were tears of joy because we were standing in her first social housing home.
That home is part of a new program in
Geraldton. I want to give a shout-out to Miranda and Grace at the Department of
Communities. It is a pilot program that is a demonstration of Housing
First. The program at its heart is about providing people with accommodation and intensive support so that they stay in that
house over time. We made vacant housing stock in Spalding available. We brought
it back online. Those six units are now housing 10 former rough sleepers,
including three people from Batavia Motor Inne. The support is being provided
by the ICARE health, drug and alcohol team in Geraldton. The program is a demonstration
of our work and our progress in tackling a very complex issue. We are bringing
vacant properties back online and tying them in with homelessness services. The
story of Natasha and Tippy gives me confidence and faith about further progress
on these issues.
We
are doing everything we can as a government to create more social housing.
Contrary to the opposition's claims, there is a genuine, sincere
effort to accelerate and pivot every which way we can. We have around 100 homes
in various stages of works as part of a timber construction program. We can
knock out homes in 22 weeks. We have our program for 200 modular homes. We have
our spot purchasing program. Again, the opposition has just realised we have
that program. We have accelerated that program to get more stock into the
system. We are also looking at how we can reform and better leverage our $190 million
investment this year in homelessness. It is my aspiration that we look at how
we can better integrate that $190 million homelessness investment with the
increasing acceleration of social housing delivery. I am deeply proud that this
government is at every opportunity seeking to drive reform and leverage on the
enormous investment we are making so that we can give people like Natasha and
Tippy a home.