Parliamentary Questions

PUBLIC HOUSING — WAITLIST — PORT HEDLAND AND SOUTH HEDLAND

917. Hon NEIL THOMSON to the Leader of the House representing the Minister for Housing:

I refer to reports of homelessness in Port Hedland and South Hedland.

(1) How many residents of Port Hedland and South Hedland are on the housing waitlist?

(2) Separately, how many one, two, three and four-bedroom dwellings are managed by the Department of Communities for the purpose of social housing in Port Hedland and South Hedland?

(3) How many of these are currently vacant?

(4) Of the vacant dwellings, how many are considered unfit for habitation in their current state?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(1) As at 31 October 2021, there were 343 applications on the public housing waitlist for Port Hedland and South Hedland preference zones.

(2)–(4) As at 31 October 2021, there was a total of 668 public housing properties in Port Hedland and South Hedland. Of these, 30 vacant properties were undergoing maintenance and will be re-tenanted, with a further 18 undergoing assessment for their future use.

As part of the record $875 million investment into social housing, the single largest investment into social housing in the history of the state, the McGowan government committed $12.8 million to carry out building assessments on public housing and Government Regional Officer Housing assets. This, along with maintenance funding under the social housing economic recovery package and business-as-usual funding, will help these properties stay in the system longer.

I seek leave to have the information, which is in tabular form, incorporated into Hansard.