Western Australian government hits back at comments made by opposition over Bunbury's homeless situation

In a media statement released on August 4, Mr Hayward addressed the state government's need to 'urgently address' the 'escalating' homeless crisis in Bunbury.

He said government agencies had 'failed' homeless people in Bunbury, resulting in the Graham Bricknell Memorial Music Shell becoming an 'unsafe, defacto shelter'.

"What we are seeing is an ongoing crisis on our doorstep. People have been sleeping there for more than five years and the government's inaction is pointing towards it becoming a permanent shelter," Mr Hayward said.

"There has already been a murder there, countless assaults including on City of Bunbury staff and members of our community who now feel unsafe using the bus depot and walking past one of our main, city precincts."

"The government has had nearly five years to address this and all they have done is set up local agencies to fail as sufficient accommodation is not available," Mr Hayward said.

Community Services Minister Simone McGurk confirmed the state government was committed to unprecedented projects to accommodate and support rough sleepers in Western Australia.

"The Department of Communities recently provided $2.5 million in additional funding to Anglicare Western Australia to develop and deliver localised and essential supports to help people experiencing homelessness in Bunbury, in partnership with Doors Wide Open and Breakaway Inc,"

"The Department of Communities is aware that the Graham Memorial Music Centre shell is an area frequented by rough sleepers and is working with its funded service partners and West Australian Police to provide accommodation and supports to people experiencing homelessness in Bunbury," Ms McGurk said.

Ms McGurk slammed Mr Hayward by saying that he was part of the City of Bunbury council in 2016 which 'publicly supported moves' to 'blare loud, looped audio' to move people away who were taking refuge at the Shell.

"This was done without without any compassion or consideration of where those people would end up. The Western Australian Nationals also failed to put forward any election commitments to address homelessness in Bunbury five months ago, so Mr Hayward's grandstanding on this issue is not only baseless, but it demonstrates a concerning lack of understanding of what is required to get this vulnerable cohort to engage with services and improve their lives," Ms McGurk said.

In regards to the lack of housing in Bunbury, Ms McGurk said the Department was supportive of funded Housing First Support Services to offer clients temporary and transitional accommodation and that there was currently more homes in the pipeline to be built in Western Australia than what had been seen in many years.

Bunbury MLA Don Punch said Mr Hayward wanted people to move on from the Shell, but also questioned where Mr Hayward suggested the homeless moved on to.

"There's no doubt that it's a complex problem. The rough sleepers at the Music Shell are not always the same people, they do change. And particularly with the weather we've got, people have chosen the Shell as a nice sheltered location."

"But we also have people that are couch sleeping, people sleeping in cars, in caravan parks and other places because we do have a shortage of housing generally everywhere at the moment," Mr Punch said.

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Mr Punch confirmed funding agencies Alliance Housing, Accordwest and Access Housing were providing accommodation of various options to those in need.

Accordwest notably run Bunbury's Tiny House Initiative which launched in May 2021, a community-led initiative to tackle homelessness in Bunbury.

"The three tiny houses are functioning. There's people living in them, people who have made them their home. They've formed part of the backdrop of the community that they're in now," Mr Punch said.

"These comments by Mr Hayward adds fuel to the fire, when there are people who are working really hard to address individual needs on a case-by-case basis for the homeless, in an environment where it is very difficult to get accommodation."