A NEW housing development in Erskine, officially opened on Friday, has already helped families and seniors.
The 22-home facility is managed by Stellar Living and residents began to move in late last year. Housing Minister Colin Holt said there was a high demand for affordable housing in the region.
“Mandurah has one of the highest proportions of people aged 65-plus in Western Australia and the type of housing predicted to increase the most in demand in the region is single-person accommodation,” he said.
“The Erskine development helps meet this demand with 16 homes for aged pensioners and six for families.
“Partnerships with community housing providers like Stellar help lift some of the burden from the State Government.
“There are only a very small percentage of public housing tenants who give them a bad name; the majority are people who need roofs over their heads so they can live in peace.
”The Department of Housing contributed $3.4 million to the development, which was built by Cachet Homes. Stellar Living contributed the cost of the land and three of the units for social housing.
“Stellar manages 190 properties on behalf of the department,” Mr Holt said.
“As a community housing preferred provider, they have committed to delivering a total of 16 growth properties by 2020.
“The Erskine development contributes three units towards that growth target.” Most of the other properties managed by Stellar for the Department of Housing are in Lakelands and Meadow Springs.
Stellar Living chief Steve Walker said the company was looking to continue the partnership through the South West. He thanked Bendigo Bank, who also contributed funds towards the project.
Cachet Homes director Chris Lillis said he was pleased the project utilised local builders instead of bringing them down from Perth.
“The expertise for these projects is here in the region so this represents another bow in the Peel string,” he said.
“With an ageing population it’s a great local initiative.” Resident Bill Hillhouse, who lives with his wife Val, said the home was in a great location.
“It’s handy to everything; there are three busses nearby making it easy to get to the shops or to the train station,” he said.
“Absolutely nothing has gone wrong with this development or the move and it suits us completely.”
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