Addressing underlying drivers of homelessness in WA
The causes of homelessness are complex, encompassing a broad range of individual and structural determinants, including housing availability and affordability, economic and employment opportunities (or lack thereof), physical and mental health outcomes, domestic and family violence, and social and community connections.
Housing
The availability and accessibility of safe, secure, and affordable housing plays a vital role in preventing entry to homelessness and facilitating a sustained exit from homelessness. However, at the present time there are significant pressures on homelessness arising from the WA housing market.
In the social housing sector, there has been a slow decline in the number of public housing dwellings to 2022 (Figure 16). The Western Australian Government in the last two years has invested heavily in a capital works program to add to the public housing stock but this will take time to flow through to public housing dwelling stock. As a result of rising housing market pressures and the historical drop off in supply, the number of people on the public housing waiting list has risen (Figure 17) as have time spent on waiting lists (Figures 18 and 19).
Figure 16
Figure 17
Figure 18
Figure 19
In the Perth rental market, rents have risen faster than Consumer Price Index (CPI) (Figure 20), rentals are being filled quickly (Figure 21), and vacancy rates have plummeted to historically low levels in the last two years Figure 22). Note that REIWA considers a vacancy rate of 2.5-3.5% to represent a balanced market. As can be seen in Figure 22, vacancy rates in Perth have remained below 1.5% since 2020 and up until August 2024, vacancy rates were less than 1% since 2022. The Perth vacancy rate has now increased to 1.7% in November 2024, with median market rents remaining stable at the highs of $650 for houses, between May 2024 and December 2024 and increasing slightly to $620 for units.
The recent movements in the vacancy rate and the median rents represent the first sign of a slight improvement for renters in the private rental market.
Figure 20
Figure 21
Figure 22
Unemployment
Trends in youth unemployment rate and the general population show unemployment at very low rates in Western Australia. As can be seen in Figure 23, unemployment rates have increased marginally between 2023 and 2024, but this is from a very low historical base. The unemployment rate remains low in WA. November 2024 saw a drop from 3.9% in October 2024 (just below the national rate) to 3.0% (below the national rate of 4.0%). Similarly, youth unemployment decreased from 7.9% in October 2024 to 4.4% in November 2024. Over the medium term, youth unemployment and general population unemployment rates in November 2024 (4.4% and 3.0%, respectively) decreased significantly since November 2019 (12.2% and 5.4%, respectively). The strong state of the WA labour market is acting to reduce pressures on homelessness at present.
Figure 23
Young people in custody and out of home care
There is an established link between young people with experience in the justice system and lifetime risk of repeat episodes of homelessness.
Figure 24 indicates that Aboriginal youth are heavily over-represented in juvenile detention figures. Overall, the number of young people in custody decreased between 2014 and 2020, although there was a slight increase in Aboriginal youth in custody between September 2020 and December 2020.
Figure 24
There is a strong association between individuals who have experienced out-of-home care and lifetime risk of homelessness. The steady trend in the rate of children in out-of-home care among the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander population illustrated in Figure 25 is concerning.
Figure 25
Physical and mental health
As can be seen in Figure 26, the proportion of persons with high or very high psychological distress has fluctuated over time with no clear positive or negative general trend. However, it is important to note that the 2017-18 results show the highest percentage of the population with self-assessed high/very high psychological distress since the introduction of the NHS in 2001. The most recent results (11.9%) from 2022 do exhibit a slight decrease from the 2017-18 peak.
Figure 26
Alcohol and drug use
There is a link between problematic alcohol and drug use and risk of homelessness. In addition to the detrimental health impact, substance abuse interacts with a range of other variables including financial stability and access to employment and training. Alcoholism is more prevalent among the homeless population than the general population, acting as both a driver into homelessness and a consequence of homelessness.
In Figure 27 there was a particularly sharp increase from 2013 to 2016 in the percentage of Western Australians who have either ‘never drunk’ or are ‘ex-drinkers.’ Inversely, the percent of those who ‘drink daily’ has shown a gradual decline. However, between 2019 and 2022-23 there was a slight increase in the percent of those who ‘drink daily’ and a large decrease in those who have ‘never drunk’.
Figure 27
There has been a positive growth in ‘abstainers’ and a slight fall in ‘risky’ consumption of alcohol in recent years (Figure 28). The AIHW defines ‘risky’ drinking as consuming more than 2 standard drinks on average every day.
Figure 28
The proportion of those who had used illicit drugs in the 12 months prior to the survey decreased across the 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019 waves of the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (Figure 29). However, rates of illicit drug use increased in the last year of reporting from 15.6% in 2019 to 20.1% in 2022-23 (Figure 29).
Figure 29
Domestic violence
Reported family violence offences have increased by more than 100 per cent in the past decade (Figure 30). Domestic and family violence is the leading cause of homelessness for women and their children, which may explain the high rates of women and children seeking assistance from SHS agencies (Figure 31). With respect to family violence offences, a peak is observed in 2023-24 which represents a significant increase since 2021-22 (Figure 30). When interpreting the previous peak observed in 2019-2020, it is necessary to consider the potential impact of COVID-19 on trends of family violence offences (Figure 30).
