Homeless living in cars and caravans on local beachfronts
CAMPED for months at a time at parks and beaches across Fremantle, Cockburn and Kwinana, scores of people say a lack of housing leaves them nowhere to live but carparks and beaches.
Ahead of the federal May budget, the prime minister reassures charities, “we won’t let the people of WA down”.
But the words ring hollow to those living in cars and caravans, surviving day by day, waiting to hear from the WA housing department.
Rangers say the number of vehicles reported at popular beach parks is rising. Unless they create a disturbance or set up camp, there is little rangers can do, according to councils contacted this week.
“We’re not sure why,” Kwinana ranger Rachel Elkims told the Herald. “We’ve been trying to deal with it for a couple of months. We’re trying to work with them but it’s very difficult.”
She says patrols last week reported six families camped illegally at Kwinana Beach. Others report growing numbers of “vagrants” at popular beaches north and south of Fremantle.
This week, the Herald visited several and spoke to people who say they can’t afford private rentals and are on public housing waiting lists.
One couple from Victoria has waited two months so far while a father and his intellectually disabled son have lived at least three months out of their 4WD, travelling from site to site.
An elderly man setting up his barbecue in the carpark at Kwinana Beach says he has lived out of his small caravan for a year.
He prefers to park on friends’ properties than take his chances in a beach carpark.
Federal Liberal MP Ken Wyatt, who represents the sprawling electorate of Hasluck in the eastern suburbs and foothills, says the future of $14.5 million in homelessness services across WA is emerging as a key issue. He urges Mr Abbott to revive funding under the national partnership agreement on homelessness.
If not extended past June 30, 6000 people assisted under the program in WA will be out in the cold.
In state parliament, Fremantle-based Greens MLC Lynn MacLaren asked child protection minister Helen Morton whether the PM’s comments provided enough certainty to guarantee services would not be cut.
Ms Morton replied she was confident the government would re-commit to fund the services via a new four-year national partnership agreement.
by CARMELO AMALFI