58,660 Building Jobs for WA
We can build back better post-Covid19 by investing in sustainable solutions. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to tackle the climate, health and economic crisis at the same time.
That's why last week we launched a Clean State Buildings Initiative to create 58,660 WA jobs by building 15,000 new, low carbon social housing homes in the next three years.
Stimulus spending on social housing provides one of the best opportunities to save existing jobs in the housing sector and create new jobs over the long term. This plan has the extra added benefit of providing much-needed housing for WA’s most vulnerable.
There are currently 14,000 families on WA’s social housing waiting list, waiting an average of 94 weeks for a home. Another 9,000 Western Australians are experiencing homelessness with 1000 people sleeping rough each night.
Meet proud grandmother Kerry Elder who lives in social housing and supports this initiative to deliver safe, secure and affordable places to live for families in need.
Building more social housing with zero running costs is something we can do right now for these families. Stephen from the Australian Insulation Foundation believes it’s so important for people’s livelihoods that last week his team completed their 20th free insulation instalment for social housing residents.
Like Stephen says, it’s the fifth toughest job in the world, but absolutely worth it because reducing household energy costs and making homes warm in winter saves lives. The impact of a simple energy efficiency scheme could halve deaths from cold weather and cut heatwave related deaths by 90%.
That’s why in addition to building more social housing we’re calling on the WA government to re-power and retrofit all of WA’s 44,000 existing social housing homes with insulation and solar. This would create 3860 jobs for small businesses across WA, and virtually eliminate power bills for tenants overnight, saving people like Kerry up to $800 a year.
Now is the time to invest in local projects that create jobs and healthy homes. You can make this Buildings Initiative a reality. Can you send a quick email to the WA Premier, Treasurer and the Environment, Housing, and Community Services Ministers? We’ve made it easy to do and should take less than 2 minutes. Show the state government that there is community support for clean investment.