Denmark housing workshop hoping to find solutions to rental woes

A community forum has been called in Denmark in a bid to find solutions to the town’s housing crisis.

WA is in the grip of a housing shortage which is putting pressure on renters and low-income earners.

Yesterday, there was just one property listed for rent in Denmark at a rate of $450 per week.

From 6pm on Monday, May 10, the Shire of Denmark will host the Bricks and Mortar Housing Alliance at council chambers for a community forum. The forum will be open to all residents.

BAMHA is a recent partnership between the Denmark Community Resource Centre, the Homeless Project Denmark, and concerned locals, pushing for minimum of 15 affordable long-term homes for those in need.

At this stage, the forum will take the form of a Q&A session that will allow the community to talk to a panel.

While details are yet to be finalised, the panel will likely include Homeless Project Denmark’s Hazel Moon and Shire of Denmark chief executive David Schober.

Denmark CRC manager Petra Thompson said she hoped the format would allow open and robust discussion.

“We are obviously in a crisis situation. We thought it was better that we had questions to the floor rather than let’s do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis on what’s lacking, I think we know that.

“The aim will be more focusing on immediate help. Before we have built anything it’s going to be three to five years so we have to work out what we’re going to do up to then. We want to walk away with a better understanding of what is possible to see where we can maybe be a little bit relaxed about rules or regulations, so that is the hope.”