| The Western Australian Council of Social Service has welcomed the Premier Mark McGowan and Housing Minister John Carey’s announcement of an additional $875 million for social housing, saying the investment will go some of the way towards relieving the pressures on WA’s social housing system.
WACOSS CEO Louise Giolitto said the investment was an important acknowledgement from the McGowan government that a range of factors had contributed to a worsening of the housing crunch in the last 18 months.
“WACOSS warmly welcomes the announcement of an extra $875 million for social housing in this year’s State Budget, to deliver better outcomes for some of the most at-risk people in our community,” Ms Giolitto said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic, construction shortages and the end of the rental moratorium have placed extreme pressure on the housing market and we are very happy to see the start of a response that is proportionate to the issue at hand.
“While we know that these issues in the housing system will not be solved over night, it is clear from this announcement and the ambitious timeline in spite of WA’s construction shortages that the Government is taking seriously this issue impacting so many low-income West Australians, with interim measures to update and convert existing social housing stock until new stock can be be built from 2022-23.
“There is no silver bullet in this space, but I welcome the range of measures being undertaken to increase social housing across the state. With sustained funding like this, we can start to see the light at the end of the social housing waitlist tunnel.” |
