PUBLIC HOUSING —
WAITING LIST
845. Hon Dr BRAD PETTITT to the Leader of the House
representing the Minister for Housing:
I
refer to the Auditor General's report titled Roll-out of state
COVID-19 stimulus initiatives: July 2020—March 2021, which
found that during that nine-month period when Western Australia's
public housing waitlist was increasing, only
two per cent of the $319 million budget allocated to build new social housing
and refurbish existing ones was spent.
(1) What were the
barriers that prevented the Department of Communities from spending the
committed $319 million?
(2) To date, how
much of the $319 million has been spent and will the minister provide a breakdown
of these expenditures?
(3) If the $319
million has not been fully spent, when will the remaining funds be spent and
what projects will it deliver?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1)–(3) Information contained within the report from the
Office of the Auditor General is now at least eight months out of date
and the package was never designed to be fully spent or allocated by March
2021. Maintenance and refurbishment programs require significant planning and
in most cases require relocation of tenants, vacation of the property or
significant disruption to the tenant. The social housing economic recovery
package, or SHERP, is a targeted economic and social stimulus measure, which is
primarily focused on the refurbishment and maintenance of social housing. The
program was designed to support jobs in the WA construction industry over a number
of years, while improving the life span and quality of homes available for social housing. As at 30 September
2021, a total of $68.6 million has been awarded, supporting an estimated
365 jobs and generating approximately $141.8 million in economic activity,
including the construction of 62 new homes, worth $18.1 million; refurbishments
of 398 homes, valued at $30 million; and maintenance works on 4 134 regional
homes, worth $20.5 million.
A $92.8 million SHERP grants program
is currently open to the community housing sector to deliver new social
housing, refurbish existing ageing social housing and provide maintenance to
remote Aboriginal communities. This grants
program comprises $33 million for approximately 100 community housing sector
new builds, up to $5 million per development; $46.5 million for approximately
500 community housing sector refurbishments, up to $500 000 per property; and
$13.3 million for remote Aboriginal community maintenance works, up to $100 000
per property.
The 2021–22 budget allocated
a record spend of $875 million in social housing, with a total investment of
$2.1 billion over the next four years. This includes innovative approaches to
delivering more social housing and the delivery of modular and pre-fabrication
and repurposing affordable housing in the short term. As part of the 2021–22 budget process, the SHERP budget
has been re-profiled to provide a sustained pipeline of work for
industry over the next four years. Recent economic stimulus measures to keep
the WA economy strong during the global pandemic have been highly effective,
with around 27 000 homes approved for construction last financial year,
including 4 000 in regional areas. This has supported thousands of additional
jobs and is expected to increase housing supply over the coming months.