Total WA Government recurrent real expenditure on homelessness services has consistently increased over the last five years in real terms (2024-25 dollars) from $105.7 million in 2020-21 to $167.1 million in 2024-25. Over this same time period, real expenditure per person has increased from $38.74 to $55.52 (Figure 32).
Figure 32
As compared with recurrent spending on homelessness services, total recurrent real expenditure on social housing decreased from $979.3 million in 2016-17 to $660.3 million in 2021-22 before increasing significantly in 2023-24 to $898.5. Correspondingly, real expenditure per person decreased from $381.13 to $238.96 before rising sharply to $305.86 in 2023-24 (Figure 33). In 2024-25, total recurrent real expenditure on social housing increased slightly to $924.8 million ($307.26 per person).
Figure 33
Figure 34 presents trends in WA Government real capital expenditure on social housing. Real capital expenditure on social housing fell through 2017-18 to 2020-21 before rising sharply in 2021-22 and increasing again in 2024-25. The fall in real capital expenditure on social housing resulted in a fall in social housing stock. The significant increases in recent years will act to arrest the decline in social housing stock. Recent budget decisions will result in further injections of real capital expenditure and assist in meeting the housing affordability and availability in Western Australia.
Figure 34
Figure 35 provides estimates of real expenditure by the Western Australian Government on both social housing and homelessness services between 2015-16 and 2024-25.
Figure 35
Index series
An index series was created to provide a means of comparing trends in real expenditure on social housing (Figure 36) and homeless services (Figure 37) between States and Territories. The baseline used for this index was 2015-16 (100), with an increase of the index (i.e., greater than 100) representing a growth in expenditure and a decrease of the index (i.e., less than 100) representing a drop in expenditure.
Compared to 2015-16, real expenditure on social housing has increased by 46.4% for Western Australia compared to a 65.0% increase nationally. However, the increase in social housing has only occurred in the last three years. As can be seen in Figure 37,between 2017-18 and 2021-22, social housing expenditure in WA fell relative to other jurisdictions and was 26.3% below that in 2015-16.
Compared to 2015-16, real expenditure on homelessness services increased by 78.9% for Western Australia by 2024-25 which was roughly comparable to the growth nationally over the same period. Western Australian real expenditure on homelessness services had been lagging behind national trends but there was a dramatic increase in real expenditure on homelessness services in 2024-25 in Western Australia increasing by 33.1% in one year.
Figure 36
Figure 37
Note
Real expenditure figures reported in 2024-25 dollars were retrieved from the 2026 Report on Government Services. In order to extend the time series back to 2015-16, nominal figures for 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 were retrieved from the respective reports for those years (i.e., 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021) and converted to 2024-25 dollars using the General Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GGFCE) chain price deflator. In cases where historical financial data had been revised in subsequent years, real figures were converted to nominal figures based on the GGFCE chain price deflator for the respective year and converted to 2024-25 dollars using the 2026 GGFCE chain price deflator. Expenditure per person in the population was re-estimated based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) December quarterly population estimates for the respective years. Accordingly, values presented in the figures may differ slightly from those reported in the Reports on Government Services due to the adjustments described above and revisions made by the ABS to population estimates since the Reports on Government Services were released.
For more information see the WA Government Housing and Homelessness Funding Snapshot
