By Rachel Curry
The head of St Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP) WA has said that the establishment of a national affordable housing working group should not be an excuse to delay action to help the homeless.
SVDP WA Chief Executive Officer Mark Fitzpatrick welcomed the initiative announced by the Turnbull Government last month, but said there were thousands of people in housing crisis who could not afford to wait until the working group reached its outcomes.
“It’s great the housing issue is starting to be addressed at a national level; there was concern housing would be dumped as something we look at from a national perspective,” he said.
“At the same time we don’t need more conversations about this; we need to get something done. In WA there’s 22,000 people, representing 43,000 individuals, on the public housing waiting list.”
Social services minister Christian Porter said the working group would look at improving the supply, quality and management of social and affordable housing in Australia.
It will include members of the Treasury and Department of Social Services as well as members from the New South Wales, Victorian and WA governments.
“The supply of affordable housing is at the centre of a great range of social service challenges,” Mr Porter said.
“No single level of government can act alone on this issue – it must be collaborative and there must be innovative solutions offered.”
Mr Fitzpatrick said he would have liked to see community groups such as St Vincent de Paul Society, which understand the complex reasons people become homeless, included in the working group.
The Catholic organisation has about 80 properties which are used by Western Australians who have found themselves homeless, while many of their other services, such as food provision and utility bill help, are fuelled by housing stress.
“We think we can play a great role with a model that looks at a mix of public funding, private funding and innovative investment,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.
“Organisations like ours can help design the system, deliver the system and make it an affordable system.”
Mr Fitzpatrick said he hoped the working group tackled broad issues that could not be addressed at a state level, such as tax reform to increase institutional investment in community housing.
Simple initiatives such as brokerage schemes could be implemented locally without a working group, he added.
“These are examples that have been used around the country that work…The working group can have a place, but we shouldn’t wait for the outcomes of the working group,” he said.
Almost 10,000 people in WA identified as homeless at the last census, a quarter of them children.