The McGowan Government will pump a further $511 million into its social housing program to boost public housing supply and refurbish ageing properties as Western Australia grapples with an accommodation crisis. Source: WA Today.
The money, to be included in the upcoming state Budget, will take the social housing investment fund first announced in 2021 to $2.6 billion and will see 700 extra homes built on top of the 3300 already announced.
The announcement was welcomed by housing advocacy groups like ShelterWA and the building sector, which will benefit greatly from more homes in the construction pipeline.
Premier Mark McGowan said the extra funding and new houses would help alleviate the pressure on the market and ensure home builders had a solid pipeline of work as the post-COVID housing boom subsided.
About $49 million of the funding will be spent on building 100 homes in regional WA for rough sleepers in a similar model used in the Perth metro area – pricing the homes at about $490,000 each on average.
Opposition housing spokesman Steve Martin was sceptical of the announcement, and said the Government had failed to deliver major investments in social housing and homelessness.
He also criticised the Government for not delivering one of its flagship homelessness projects – the Common Ground project in East Perth.
WA Housing Minister John Carey said the Government had delivered 1000 homes in one of the tightest and most heated construction markets the state had ever seen.
FULL STORY
WA government pumps more cash into public housing as homelessness crisis deepens (By Hamish Hastie, WA Today)
RELATED COVERAGE
WA pledges $500m to ease housing shortage (By Aaron Bunch, AAP via Perth Now)
