Coronavirus: Mixed results to get WA homeless off streets

Fewer than 30 homeless people remain in stable accommodation after a pandemic experiment that took WA’s rough sleepers off the streets.

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: AAP

Fewer than 30 homeless people remain in stable accommodation after a pandemic experiment that took Western Australia’s rough sleepers off the streets and into a city hotel and a holiday camp with the aim of steering them into long-term housing.

The McGowan government’s Hotels with Hearts pilot program cost $392,000 and was designed to give immediate shelter to homeless people as the state’s daily coronavirus toll rose in April. But the Department of Communities, which funded the pilot, also hoped it could be a way of identifying rough sleepers who wanted help to get into private rental accommodation.

The Australian has been told a total of 27 rough sleepers stayed at Perth’s Pan Pacific Hotel during the four-week trial, and 47 went to the Woodman Point Recreation Camp south of the city. Some walked out, while The Australian has been told some were made to leave Woodman Point for reasons including being found with drug paraphernalia.

Pan Pacific manager Rob Weeden was especially welcoming, calling his homeless guests “Special VIPs” and making sure those with alcohol dependency understood they were allowed small amounts of alcohol.

Mr Weeden said some did leave, and were unable to return in case they contaminated the hotel. He was understanding, saying the temptation to leave to buy things was too great for some when their $750 pandemic payments arrived from Centrelink.

“To be honest, they were better behaved than some of the returning Australians who later quarantined at the hotel at the taxpayers’ expense,” he said.

Mr Weeden’s hotel is now open to the public after an eventful stint as a quarantine facility for returning Australians. He said one night a woman, recently returned and in enforced quarantine, ran from her room and threw a full serve of lasagne at him.

The Department of Communities used Indigenous and non-Indigenous service providers to run the Hotel with Hearts pilot. “At the conclusion of the pilot, Ruah Community Services advised that 13 clients were housed in a mix of private rental accommodation and social housing, four clients returned to family, and one client was assisted to return to country,” a Communities spokesman said.

“Ruah and Uniting West continue to work with clients who left the pilot early to help them secure safe and appropriate accommodation.”

For the 11 people who made it through the pilot to social housing properties — all of them Indigenous — service provider Noongar Mia Mia is helping with support over the next 12 months.