State to sort public housing waitlist

THE state government intends to reduce the social housing waiting list by fostering investment, construction and administrative partnerships with the private sector and not-for-profit organisations.

Housing Minister Troy Buswell announced the government's intention to reform the affordable housing sector early this week, with the release of the Social Housing Taskforce report and a blueprint for future directions.

There are 22,000 people currently on the social housing waiting list in Western Australia, not including 15,000 homeless people.

Mr Buswell said there were currently 700 dwellings being built in WA for public housing, but this was falling short of demand.

“We need a much broader approach and a much broader strategy to provide meaningful social housing solutions for the 21st century," he said.

“If we keep going the way we have for the last 10 years or so, it will take us, if nothing else changes, 75 years to clear the public sector waitlist in WA.

“We have to change, we have to innovate and this report will drive significant reform in terms of the delivery of social housing."

Mr Buswell said one of the key recommendations of the report was to encourage private sector investment in, and construction of, social housing.

“We have significant work to do to build that investment vehicle; we will work with the Commonwealth to understand what we can do to provide incentive to the private sector to invest into social housing provision," he said.

“That will enable us to increasingly engage with the private sector in terms of the provision, not only of social housing, but also of affordable housing."

Mr Buswell has invited public comment on the development of a long-term state affordable housing strategy.