Media Release – Shelter WA Responds to State Budget 2024-25
Shelter WA, the peak body for the community housing and homelessness sectors in WA, welcomed the 2024-25 state budget yesterday.
“The first budget to be handed down by Premier Roger Cook and Treasurer Rita Saffioti delivers some significant measures that boost homelessness services and social and affordable housing stock, but on the whole could have done more to meet the scale and urgency of the crisis.” Kath Snell, CEO Shelter WA said.
Homelessness funding boost
“Shelter WA was thrilled to see one of the most significant measures we advocated for in our Pre Budget submission delivered, with $92.2m homelessness funding boost for over 120 homelessness services and wrap around support for rough sleepers announced in the weeks leading to the state budget.
“Our sector has been under enormous pressure with unprecedented demand, and this will take some stress off frontline staff, and directly support those that are in dire need of support and services.
“While we welcomed this announcement which will make a meaningful difference to a sector that has been completely overwhelmed, we remain concerned at the lack of funding for rapid accommodation options (such as ancillary dwellings) we also advocated for, which are essential to support the government’s goal to end rough sleeping by 2025.
Social Housing and support for the Community Housing sector
The budget delivered a number of social and affordable housing measures, including
- An additional $400m into the expanded Social and Affordable Housing Investment Fund (SAHIF – formerly the SHIF) – including $56.2m allocated to NRAS spot purchases
- $144m for new housing projects such as Pier Street through the Housing Diversity Pipeline
- $60m grant funding for community housing in the regions, and
- $179m maintenance and repairs for WAs 45,000 social homes, key workers and Aboriginal housing.
“The government needed to invest in social and affordable housing, and they have.
“While the social and affordable housing investment is very welcome, we estimate it will only provide about an additional 1000 social homes. We’re pleased to see the funding boost into repairs and maintenance, which are desperately needed.
We are especially pleased to see that affordable rental housing is part of this budget, and that Government is planning to purchase some of the National Affordable Rental Scheme (NRAS) properties, ensuring that some affordable rentals stay in place in perpetuity.
Shelter WA understands that the affordable housing planned under the SAHIF and Housing Diversity Pipeline will be delivered and managed in partnership with the community housing sector, delivering a much welcome boost in capacity and growth.
“We had also really hoped that the state would fully embrace a new WA rental affordable scheme that would step in where NRAS is ending, providing incentives that would deliver desperately needed rental supply of at least 5000 new rentals over the next ten years. We feel this is a missed opportunity and we will ensure we continue to advocate for this.”
“It’s also distressing to see in the budget papers that average waiting times for over 20,000 families on the waiting list are expected to increase to 163 weeks, up from 94 weeks in 2019-20.
Cost of living
The budget also delivered another $400 electricity credit for all Western Australians and 90,000 small businesses as a cost-of-living measure that will provide relief across the board.
“While the electricity credit will be welcomed by many people across our state and we are happy to see that government has recognised the pressure of cost of living on so many West Australians, it’s only a short-term hit.
“The same amount of money spent on this one-off electricity credit ($492m) could have delivered energy efficient retrofits and solar power to three quarters of all social homes across WA, saving tenants up to $2500 per year per household (according to a recent ACOSS report). This would have provided a much larger and ongoing annual saving for 45,000 households with the lowest income, as well as significant emissions reductions.
Conclusion
“We thank the government for the measures delivered with this budget, and we will continue working with government on the remaining recommendations in our pre budget submission.
“WA’s housing crisis is breaking all the wrong records, but we have an incredible opportunity to solve it together. With rents soaring, homelessness surging and the housing crisis deepening, Shelter WA will continue to advocate for urgent actions to ensure everyone in WA has a safe and affordable place to call home” Ms Snell concluded.
For more information contact
Chantal Caruso
chantal@shelterwa.org.au
0447 201 377
