Private rentals replace WA social housing

A WA government trial program aimed at getting social housing tenants and waitlist applicants into private rental homes has passed the initial target of more than 200 households.

The $14 million scheme, which is running in Perth and country towns such as Albany and Bunbury, provides tenants with a rent discount for up to four years and guarantees payment to landlords for the duration of the lease.

According to Housing Authority figures, public housing only makes up four per cent of all dwellings in the state, but almost 17,000 households are on the waitlist and about 1650 are on the priority waitlist.

Average wait times are highest in the metropolitan area (157 weeks), followed by the South West (150), West Kimberley (147), Pilbara (142), East Kimberley (134), Great Southern (96), Mid West/Gascoyne (82), Wheatbelt (70) and Goldfields (67).