Western Australia’s largest regional city has been denied state funding for an emergency homeless shelter.
Bunbury’s mayor wrote to the housing minister in June asking for assistance in provisioning temporary crisis accommodation to help the city’s growing population of rough sleepers.
Late last month minister John Carey wrote back rejecting the request.
He told the ABC he had received advice the site proposed for the shelter was “not appropriate”.
But City of Bunbury Mayor Jaysen Miguel said no location was identified in his letter to the minister.
Mr Carey did not clarify where he obtained this information or whether he would fund a shelter at an alternative site.
“We are always open to new ideas, but it’s not simply about jumping forward and saying, ‘We’ve got a building here, we think it should be used,'” he said.
“We understand that these are difficult times but I want to assure the people of Bunbury that this government is committed.”
Cr Miguel said the city would continue to provide support and collaborate with service providers to address homelessness.
“We also acknowledged the state is working hard to address homelessness, not just in Bunbury, but across WA,” he said.
“We thank them for their ongoing support.”
Most homeless people ever recorded in Bunbury
In August, support services recorded 120 homeless people living in Bunbury — the most since the monthly tally began in 2021.
Anglicare, Accordwest, and the Salvation Army have all said the total number was likely much higher.
Mr Carey said the government had invested a record $3.2 million into social housing and homelessness services in the state since 2021, including delivering 40 new social housing dwellings in Bunbury.
Data analysed by the WA Alliance to End Homelessness (WAAEH) has shown the total net real expenditure on social housing and homelessness services in WA went down by more than 20 per cent between 2016-17 and 2022-23.
However, this figure does not include funds committed in the latest financial year.
Bunbury councillor and WA Liberal upper house election candidate Gabi Ghasseb said he personally felt that while housing was the state government’s remit, it was local governments which were bearing witness to the distress of the homeless population day-to-day.
“People are desperate. They’re crying out for help,” he said.
“I would just hope and pray that the state government will have a rethink about all this.”
Locals refuse to take no for answer
Bunbury soup van volunteer Ingrid Hilario is one of several local residents committed to continuing the fight for a shelter.
In winter, Ms Hilario, who has herself spent time sleeping rough, started a weekly protest out the front of local member Don Punch’s office.
“The shelter would only be a kind of bandaid. But a bandaid is necessary,” she said.
“You don’t only do big surgery. You also put on bandaids to help for the moment.
“There is no point having housing for people three years after they have died from exposure.”
As of February 2022 the Department of Communities had funded six crisis and accommodation services in Perth, according to a 2023 parliamentary inquiry.
Three were classed as “low barrier”, which means a person experiencing homelessness would not have to meet specific criteria to access the shelter.
The inquiry found Bunbury only had two emergency accommodation units that were exclusively available to families.
It also found there was no out-of-hours crisis service operating in Bunbury.