Manjimup students couch surfing amid housing shortage crisis as shire fights for action

With homeless on the rise in the South West, Manjimup finds itself with the fourth highest rate in the region with “massive shortages” of housing in the area. While Manjimup shire president Donelle Buegge said Bunbury, Margaret River and Busselton led the way, she was concerned about the number of young people without a permanent and stable place to call home. “The high school told me 30 per cent of their students are living in a different house,” she said. “It is something we are desperately trying to address and bring the relevant departments and housing bodies together so they understand how desperate we are for housing down here. “As a shire we’ve identified lazy land and available land we have. The Cook Government have made the promise for 100 housing projects they are going to fund so that is something we are very much on the forefront pushing hard to get.” In the next four years, Manjimup is needing 300 houses to combat the issue, however, the costs associated with housing creates challenges — and land approval stands in the way. “Everyone knows how hard it is to get builders and tradesmen and essential services connected,” Ms Buegge said. She said if the Government lowered the costs of headworks, such as water and sewerage, it could be one way to help progress projects and enable developers to get housing off the ground. “It’s a big issue and it’s a multi-departments issue. Supply is not keeping up with demand,” she said. Ms Buegge said the shire had tried to get work rolling on turning an empty block into housing, with the possibility of 20 houses added for the community on the vacant land. “We sort of keep getting rebutted and the conversation starts and stops,” she said. “I’m trying to get everyone around one table to talk about how we progress that land. I’ve found that talking to individual agencies, everyone’s keen, but nothing happens. “All the services are right there. It’s very accessible for people. We don’t necessarily need social housing; we just need housing. We need the investment into town to get housing up and going.” Ms Buegge said the shire had copped flak for its approach to unapproved dwellings, but her team needed to make sure people were living safely in inappropriate housing. “It’s been sort of touted the shire is taking a lenient approach on the unapproved dwellings — it’s not that we’re being lenient, we’re being mindful,” she said. “We are definitely not going out knocking on sheds looking for people. But if a complaint comes in, we do need to investigate it.” People can stay in dwellings without approval for three nights a month and the shire can approve them for a further three months of the year. For 12-month permits, the shire can assist with writing a request to the State Government for residency within the shed or “unapproved” dwelling. Ms Buegge said the number of homeless people in town was unknown with many unreported cases because they were couch surfing. She encouraged the community to reach out to the shire for support so they could put people in contact with agencies who can help.