00:00For people like Rebecca Nichols, life isn't getting any easier.
00:11Shopping at Foodbank once a week, relying on free food donations and living in a small
00:16house in Perth's South East with nine other people.
00:20I don't understand how yours is so cheap.
00:23The overcrowding effect on people's wellbeing, their mental wellbeing, their physical wellbeing
00:29is very real.
00:33We first met Rebecca in May last year while investigating the impact of cost of living
00:38and housing pressures.
00:41Handouts are great and I appreciate them to be a hand up for a certain period of time,
00:45but long term it doesn't actually help because that money disappears.
00:50She was doing her best to provide for her four kids while living in her sister's home
00:54temporarily with her sister, her brother-in-law and their three kids.
01:00But she's still there and hasn't been able to secure social housing.
01:05So my 11-year-old sleeps usually at the top and then my 10-year-old and my 8-year-old
01:10and my 6-year-old.
01:11There is a level of feeling inadequate as a parent that you cannot provide what would
01:17be considered to be a comfortable living space.
01:21It's not just social housing, Perth's rental market is also under strain, being driven
01:27by high demand and high pricing.
01:30We're seeing more and more renters unable to afford their properties and that's really
01:35resulting in additional homelessness.
01:41Homelessness remains present throughout the city and broader WA with unprecedented delays
01:46in access to social housing.
01:50People have been sleeping rough here at Lake Joondalup, some in cars overnight, in the
01:55toilets or in tents in the bush.
01:58It's the reality for hundreds across Perth right now who can't afford to have a roof
02:03over their heads.
02:0658-year-old Chris has been sleeping in his car for eight years, regularly cooking his
02:11breakfast on one of the barbecues at Lake Joondalup.
02:15He didn't want to be interviewed but he was happy to share his story.
02:19Largely the issue in the housing market is a supply side issue.
02:23We need building approvals to rise, we need that social housing to come on board, we need
02:28an increase in density in appropriate places.
02:33Labor launched its re-election campaign with a joint federal-state $443 million commitment
02:39to increasing social and affordable homes across WA.
02:44What we are doing is focusing on the issues which matter to Western Australians and one
02:48of those key issues is housing.
02:50Labor, the Liberals and Nationals have all pledged to boost housing supply in the regions
02:56but the Liberals have taken a different approach, offering first home owners stamp duty concessions
03:02and offering older Western Australians rebates to downsize.
03:06Western Australians have experienced the largest boom in WA's history and yet it's never
03:13been tougher for first home buyers to get in the market.
03:19Like Rebecca, voters will be thinking carefully about who's promising what and how it will
03:25help them.
03:26I will say I am grateful to be in a home at all rather than in my car or in a tent somewhere
03:32else but there are a lot of pressures of putting two families into one home.
03:39And while solving the housing crisis won't be an easy task, the next steps taken by the
03:45and by the incoming government will be crucial.
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