A new report from Kimberley Community Legal Services following a year long survey of 166 public housing tenants has revealed widespread failures in the delivery of public housing maintenance across the Kimberley, raising serious questions about the effectiveness of the current Head Maintenance Contract model.
The report found nearly 70 per cent of tenants surveyed were still waiting for repairs, while only five per cent reported their maintenance issues were fixed quickly. Plumbing failures, electrical faults, leaking roofs, mould and structural damage were common across the region.
The findings reflect concerns raised by the WA Auditor General in 2025, who found that around 85 per cent of housing maintenance is reactive rather than planned and preventative, with significant delays in completing repairs and around $250 million spent on travel and overhead costs since 2019.
Maintenance in the Kimberley is currently managed through a private company headquartered in the Eastern States, who are responsible for overseeing repairs through subcontractors. The report argues the model is centralised, costly and poorly suited to the realities of remote Western Australia.
In June Kimberley leaders called for housing to return to community control, citing massive maintenance problems.
Kimberley Community Legal Services CEO Matt Panayi said the current model sends millions of dollars out of the region while local communities are left waiting for basic repairs.
"The people best placed to maintain Kimberley homes are the people who know Kimberley communities," he said.
KCLS Systemic Change Advocate Akira Boardman said the report showed the problems were not isolated incidents but the result of a maintenance system that was failing tenants across the region.
"What we heard consistently from tenants was that they are doing everything they're supposed to do. They're reporting problems, following up and waiting, but the system is simply not responding in a timely or effective way," she said.
"This report provides evidence from 166 tenants across the Kimberley, and the message is clear. People are living with leaking roofs, faulty plumbing, electrical hazards and mould while waiting months, and sometimes years, for repairs. The current maintenance review is a rare opportunity for the WA Government to redesign the system so it is preventative, locally delivered and accountable to the communities it serves."
The report also contains evidence from independent inspections by a licensed builder in a remote community that found all six homes inspected were high-risk, with two assessed as not habitable. The inspections identified water ingress, mould, failed waterproofing, structural deterioration and repairs that had not addressed underlying defects.
Kimberley Community Legal Services urged the WA Government to replace the current Head Maintenance Contract model with community-led, locally delivered maintenance services and a planned preventative maintenance program that keeps homes safe and functional.
The full report is available online.
