Housing will be a key issue in the WA election, with affordability and availability front of mind for voters. Media rents in Perth remain the second most expensive in the country and social housing waitlists are stubbornly long. Both major parties are promising to address the housing crisis in their own ways but questions remain over whether their plans will work.
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00:00For people like Rebecca Nichols, life isn't getting any easier.
00:11Shopping at Foodbank once a week, relying on free food donations and living in a small
00:16house in Perth's South East with nine other people.
00:20I don't understand how yours is so cheap.
00:23The overcrowding effect on people's wellbeing, their mental wellbeing, their physical wellbeing
00:29is very real.
00:33We first met Rebecca in May last year while investigating the impact of cost of living
00:38and housing pressures.
00:41Handouts are great and I appreciate them to be a hand up for a certain period of time,
00:45but long term it doesn't actually help because that money disappears.
00:50She was doing her best to provide for her four kids while living in her sister's home
00:54temporarily with her sister, her brother-in-law and their three kids.
01:00But she's still there and hasn't been able to secure social housing.
01:05So my 11-year-old sleeps usually at the top and then my 10-year-old and my 8-year-old
01:10and my 6-year-old.
01:11There is a level of feeling inadequate as a parent that you cannot provide what would
01:17be considered to be a comfortable living space.
01:21It's not just social housing, Perth's rental market is also under strain, being driven
01:27by high demand and high pricing.
01:30We're seeing more and more renters unable to afford their properties and that's really
01:35resulting in additional homelessness.
01:41Homelessness remains present throughout the city and broader WA with unprecedented delays
01:46in access to social housing.
01:50People have been sleeping rough here at Lake Joondalup, some in cars overnight, in the
01:55toilets or in tents in the bush.
01:58It's the reality for hundreds across Perth right now who can't afford to have a roof
02:03over their heads.
02:0658-year-old Chris has been sleeping in his car for eight years, regularly cooking his
02:11breakfast on one of the barbecues at Lake Joondalup.
02:15He didn't want to be interviewed but he was happy to share his story.
02:19Largely the issue in the housing market is a supply side issue.
02:23We need building approvals to rise, we need that social housing to come on board, we need
02:28an increase in density in appropriate places.
02:33Labor launched its re-election campaign with a joint federal-state $443 million commitment
02:39to increasing social and affordable homes across WA.
02:44What we are doing is focusing on the issues which matter to Western Australians and one
02:48of those key issues is housing.
02:50Labor, the Liberals and Nationals have all pledged to boost housing supply in the regions
02:56but the Liberals have taken a different approach, offering first home owners stamp duty concessions
03:02and offering older Western Australians rebates to downsize.
03:06Western Australians have experienced the largest boom in WA's history and yet it's never
03:13been tougher for first home buyers to get in the market.
03:19Like Rebecca, voters will be thinking carefully about who's promising what and how it will
03:25help them.
03:26I will say I am grateful to be in a home at all rather than in my car or in a tent somewhere
03:32else but there are a lot of pressures of putting two families into one home.
03:39And while solving the housing crisis won't be an easy task, the next steps taken by the
03:45and by the incoming government will be crucial.