ABS data shows Kimberley has the most homeless people in regional WA

The Kimberley has the most homeless people in regional WA with 1,031 people living on the streets, in tents, couch-surfing or in “severely” overcrowded houses, according to the latest data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The desert town of Halls Creek in the East Kimberley has the most homeless people (326) for any Local Government Area outside of Perth followed by Broome (318). Of those homeless people, 279 in Halls Creek and 123 in Broome lived in “severely” overcrowded houses. The Shire of Derby West Kimberley has 250 homeless people while The Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley has 137. The ABS has released its Estimating Homelessness report based on calculations from the Census of Population and Housing (2012). However, Halls Creek Shire chief executive Phillip Cassell said the report was, “not accurate.” “It’s a lot worse than that in Halls Creek. Households aren’t reporting the real number of people in the house because of fear of increased rent,” he said. “We are getting people desperate here in Halls Creek. Now we have inherited a lot of people from communities around Fitzroy Crossing following the flood and the wet season. These people would not be captured in that data for homelessness and overcrowding.” A survey by the Shire during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed 82 per cent of public houses were overcrowded. Mr Cassell said the overcrowding was caused by a failure of public housing to keep up with demand. “The build has not kept up with the population and the other reason is the renovations have not kept up with the overcrowding,” he said. “People can only live in half a house because the ceiling is falling in.” Mr Cassell said one resident lived without any lights because “the fittings have decayed.” “He has been using a candle, he uses the torch on his phone to cook a meal.” WA Alliance to End Homelessness chief executive David Pearson said homelessness and housing are in crisis across Australia and the challenges of providing houses in remote communities were tough. “We know they are doing it tough it’s all the feedback we get. There has been some great investment by Government but it does not come close to meeting demand.” According to Hansard, in East Kimberley, there were 352 people on the waitlist for public housing in March 2022, with an average wait time of three years. There were also 127 applications listed as a priority, with an average wait time of one year. The West Kimberley has a public housing waitlist of 839 and 145 on the priority list. The wait time is almost two and a half years and one year respectively. Mr Pearson said WA, “significantly underinvests” in public housing despite running a budget surplus which is the “envy of the country.” “It emphasises the point that this is a bad situation that is only going to get worse.” He also questioned why it has taken 19 months since Census night to release the data. “How useful is that? It is telling us what we can see with our own eyes this is a problem that is getting worse.”