Foundation Housing analysis of social and community housing in WA
Following the release of the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services (ROGS) on Housing in January this year, Foundation Housing commissioned Urbis to prepare a report summarising the extensive data and key findings.
The Urbis report provides a national comparative and illustrates state by state activity and changes to key metrics over the last decade including analysis in relation to property transfers, state public housing numbers and income eligibility limits.
It includes figures across the states and territories about changes in numbers of public and community housing dwellings over the last ten years, comparison of government transfers of property and/or management to the community housing sector, and expenditure per person on social housing. It also compares the differing income eligibility limits for public and community housing across Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
Western Australia
It provides a breakdown over time for WA of:
- the proportion of a WA public and social housing household’s income that goes to rent, and
- WA Government spending per person for public and community housing.
Urbis Report Summary
- Across Australia, public housing has typically declined over the last ten years. From 2012 – 2021, Western Australia’s total public housing dwellings declined by 6 per cent (1,881 fewer dwellings)
- At the same time, policy reforms across the country have seen almost every state and territory’s community housing portfolio (with the exception of Queensland) grow by more than 5 per cent. From 2012 – 2021, WA’s total community housing dwellings increased by 35 per cent (2,624 additional dwellings).
- Nationally, in 2021, public housing made up between 2.3 per cent and 5.8 per cent of total dwellings across states (in WA it was 2.8 per cent). Community housing made up between 0.4 per cent and 2.6 per cent (in WA it was 0.6 per cent)
- Across Australia, in the last five years there has been a significant number of property and/or management transfers from state governments to the community housing sector, with NSW and SA making up the bulk of these (12.1 per cent and 13 per cent of 2018 public stock respectively). In contrast, WA has seen just 0.6 per cent of 2018 public stock transferred.
- A breakdown of the proportion of gross income spent on rent in WA social housing shows that 16.1 per cent of householders in community housing are spending more than 25 per cent of their income on rent.
The report includes detail on the differing income eligibility limits for public and community housing across Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. Perth has the lowest eligibility limit for public housing, and second lowest for community housing.
Expenditure per person on social housing for each state and territory is also set out, along with expenditure per public and community housing tenancy in WA. Since 2016, spending per tenancy by the WA Government has ranged between $14,250 and $15,900 for public housing, and for community housing, between $10,000 and $11,800 over the same period.
Report
