With cold winter nights and escalating costs of living, having a roof over our heads is something not to be taken for granted.
The financial pressure on vulnerable people and working families in Western Australia is strong – with many people forced to choose between paying for rent or other essentials like food and electricity as the gap between the haves and the have nots in our state continues to grow.
Accelerated by the impacts of COVID-19, a series of interest rate hikes, and high inflation, an increasing number of people in WA are experiencing the challenges associated with affordable housing, diminished rental supply, rising rents, and everyday cost of living.
Charities such as St Bart's and Uniting WA are experiencing a higher than usual demand of people searching for a home as vulnerable people in WA struggle to make ends meet, while seeing more people who are new to homelessness.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data shows the overall number of homeless people in WA increased to 9,729 in 2021, up from the 9,005 people captured in the 2016 the Census, an 8.6 per cent rise over five years.
WA's rough sleepers
While WA has the lowest rate of people experiencing homelessness anywhere in the country, our state has the highest proportion of rough sleepers in the country.
Nearly one in four homeless Western Australians, or 24 per cent, are sleeping rough, with 2,315 rough sleepers recorded in the 2021 Census, more than double the 1,083 recorded in 2016.
St Bart’s CEO Sam Drury told Business News there is a severe lack of available housing for people who are sleeping rough, with the Q1 vacancy rate at 0.5 per cent, and 0.7 per cent in June.
“You’ve got rising interest rates, financial pressure through COVID, increased mental health impacts along with everything else that happened during that time and absolutely zero stock,” Ms Drury said.
“We’re anticipating more and more people will become homeless through the pressure of the increasing interest rates, the pressures on rent, and rent going up.
“Anecdotally I hear stories of 10 per cent rental increases and that makes it completely unaffordable in the private sector.”
There are more than 30,000 people on waitlists for a home in WA, or more than 19,000 households waiting for social housing, she explained. “They can be waiting years. There’s just no stock to house these people into.”
A safe, stable place to call home
Homelessness is not just about lacking a place to sleep. It is about the loss of stability, security, and dignity that comes with having a safe and stable place to call home.
People experiencing homelessness include those who are couch surfing or temporarily staying with family and friends, in homeless accommodation, overcrowded boarding houses, or living on the streets, in cars, or in tents.
Uniting WA runs Tranby Engagement Hub, a purpose-built crisis support facility in Perth open 365 days a year providing meals, laundry and other support services for people experiencing homelessness.
The average number of people experiencing homelessness looking for assistance at the Tranby hub was 258 per day in June this year, compared to 139 per day in June 2022.
In the first six months of 2023, there were more than 40,000 instances of people seeking assistance at Tranby, compared to around 25,800 in the same period last year – a year-on-year increase of 55 per cent.
“In the past, people accessing Tranby tended to be chronically ‘street present’, meaning they had been living on the streets for a while. But nowadays, we are seeing more people who are new to the experience of homelessness,” Uniting WA Co-CEO Jen Park told Business News.
“Maybe a few months ago, they were still paying their bills, but something has tipped them over the edge and they can no longer afford a place to stay. These are the people now needing our support,” she said.
“We are seeing more and more families living out of cars. One or both parents are still going to work, and they are sending their children to school, but the toll it’s taking is unacceptable.”
