Esperance joins queue for worker village funds

The Shire of Esperance is the latest council to join a mounting list of regional towns putting their hand out to the state government to help fund workers housing projects to address staff shortages.

The south coast shire is seeking support to build a $6.5 million, 20-unit village to accommodate workers in aged care, child care, the shire and other critical roles.

Shire president Ron Chambers said the facility would be for people critical to running the community who were struggling to pay high rent.

“We are hoping to design and build the accommodation so it can be used as worker accommodation but can also be easily repurposed when that need is not required any further,” he said.

“Timeframes around the project are uncertain at this point because it depends on if the state provide us the money for the project.

“If we get the money from the government we are looking at about 20 units of worker accommodation.”

Esperance’s pitch, approved at Tuesday’s council meeting, came out of a 2023 Urbis study which found as many as 3,400 extra homes would be needed in town by 2050 to cater for anticipated projects.

Esperance has also been among the hardest hit in Australia by the tight labour market, at one point reaching 0 per cent vacancy.

At least 10 local governments in the state’s Mid and North West have either already approached the state government or plan to do so to help fund housing projects to relieve key worker shortages in town.

That includes Karratha’s 82-unit apartment project, a 10-home plan in Kununurra, and up to 12 in the Shire of Ashburton.

The state government has in recent years contributed to headworks for a 91-dwelling project in Broome, expansion of a village in Coral Bay, shire staff homes in Shark Bay and refurbishment of ageing homes in Karratha.

The fast-tracking of land in Kalbarri and Exmouth is yet to bear fruits, with the former falling over when the government’s preferred builder went missing in action.

The Shire of Carnarvon on Wednesday night also passed a motion to reject the sole tender for construction of two four-bed homes for essential non-shire workers and go back to the market.

Some $1.24 million has been budgeted for the project, $240,000 of which is state government grant money which needs to be spent by the end of the year.

The sole tender came in 25 per cent above budget.