Despite only making up about 20 per cent of Western Australia's population, people in regional or remote parts of the state represent about half of people accessing specialist homelessness services. With a state election fast approaching, the housing crisis is weighing heavy on the minds of voters in these areas. In the south, short-term accommodation and a lack of affordable new builds is squeezing locals out of the rental market. While in the north, Indigenous communities are living in over-crowded and run-down social housing.
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00:00To many West Australians, Margaret River is a tourist destination.
00:08Local cleaner Serena Liotta knows this all too well.
00:12Cottages are empty for 10 days and I sit there and I think, oh my god, I would love it if
00:17I could just stay here for 10 days.
00:21The mother of two has been applying and getting rejected for rentals for almost two years.
00:27Right now she's staying at a friend's share house with her son, who was diagnosed with
00:31brain cancer around the same time the house they were renting was put up for sale.
00:36Recently, she's had to make the tough decision to send her younger daughter to stay with
00:40her dad until she can find a stable home for all three of them.
00:44I feel like a broken family.
00:48It feels like we're not whole when we're not together.
00:53In the state's far north, residents in remote Aboriginal communities are facing their own
00:58housing issues.
01:00Insects come through from the outside and the centipedes are a good size and they're venomous.
01:08Social housing makes up most homes in Djarinjan, but locals say the government is failing to
01:13maintain them.
01:14I had to wait seven years until they put a new plumbing system in the house and that's
01:21a long time to wait.
01:23You know, living with water leaks and stuff.
01:25The government said it had announced a $350 million fund in 2023 to refurbish housing
01:32in remote communities.
01:34With an election just three weeks away, housing was top of the agenda at a forum for candidates
01:39in Warren Blackwood, one of the most marginal seats in WA.
01:43We have vacancies through our education, health, law enforcement, as well as at a local government
01:49issue level that we can't house people to fill the positions that we have.
01:54Ms Bugie says she wants to see more state funding to unlock empty government land.
01:59It is very frustrating knowing that local government is the closest level of government
02:04to the community.
02:06We can see what we need to do and we can see a very simple fix.
02:09We just need that conversation to start.
02:12There's a lot of promises, always promises at election time.
02:16I look at people who are proactive, who are making changes prior to election.
02:20Are you seeing anyone who fits that bill?
02:25Not quite.
02:27Both major parties have committed hundreds of millions of dollars towards solving the
02:32housing crisis.
02:33But who gets elected and whether they actually follow through on their promises feels somewhat
02:38irrelevant to Ms Leotta and many other regional West Australians who need to find a house
02:44today.
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