Shake-up of services to State housing

The Department of Housing has shaken up the way it provides tenancy services to public housing in remote Pilbara communities after vocal complaints last year.

Last September, more than 100 Warralong residents, living three hours south-east of Hedland, staged a protest, claiming their public housing was overcrowded and run down.

The department has since reviewed its operations and from July will shift responsibility for maintenance work to a head maintenance contractor.

A separate contract will be awarded for the inspection and reporting of maintenance issues.

The system would be markedly different from the current arrangement in which one group is responsible for both reporting problems and arranging for repairs.

Department of Housing acting general manager service delivery Greg Cash said the review should improve housing conditions.

"Under these new contracts, responsibility for the delivery of maintenance services to these remote communities will shift from the service provider to the department's head maintenance contractors," he said.

The review follows strident criticism of living conditions in Warralong and other communities last September.

Warralong community elders said at the time some houses were missing windows and lockable doors, while heavy rubbish had not been collected ahead of cyclone season.

Strelley Community School principal Kate McKenzie also said that while essential power and water services were well maintained, she did not believe enough was being spent to improve infrastructure and prevent problems before they arose.

"Getting anything repaired out here I know is expensive, I know because I run the school," she said.

"But there are some houses where people are living in them and they don't have windows.

"Every year we seem to have the same conversations … and (the agencies) ask the same things and then it sort of dissipates or falls into the too hard basket."

The department said it met the Warralong community on October 7.

"All of their basic housing concerns are being addressed and an undertaking was given by the Department to continue consultation with the community," Mr Cash said.