Prominent WA housing organisations have criticised both major parties for their 'deafening silence' on Perth's homeless population in the lead up to the state election.
There are currently 18,000 applicants on the Housing Authority's social housing waiting list, and some applicants have been forced to wait up to two years to access housing.
At a Shelter WA political forum on February 9, members of each party were invited to offer their own policies to tackle homelessness and poor housing affordability in WA.
But Shelter WA's communication and engagement manager Stephen Hall said the forum mainly served as confirmation that homelessness was not high on either party's agenda.
"There has been no release of any policy by either of the major political parties to date," he said.
"More than 60 people attended the forum. While there was a robust discussion, the major political parties made no substantial new policy announcements - this demonstrates housing reform is not a key priority in this election."
According to the Department for Child Protection and Family Support, an estimated 4,909 people were experiencing homelessness in the Great Perth area on Census night in 2011.
"Shelter WA expects a significant increase in homelessness in the upcoming Census data, demonstrating the extent of the problem," Mr Hall said.
"The 18,000 applicants on the social housing waiting list demonstrate that current responses to housing are inadequate."
Youth Futures chief executive officer Mark Waite said his organisation had been forced to turn away 987 requests for accommodation due to being at capacity, or requests that had been made were outside the scope of their services.
"I don't believe they understand the gravity of the situation," he said.
"I believe there has been a lack of consultation across the sector to review what is working and what is not."
Mr Waite said there were a range of rent affordability issues across the state, and homelessness services had become the 'default system' for the failing child protection, mental health, and justice system.
"Young people are presenting to the service due to a variety of issues including their family experiencing homelessness, we continue to hear stories of entire families sleeping in their car at the beach or sleeping rough in local bushlands," he said.
"Whilst families are very reluctant to be separated, young people have to fend for themselves and often a starting point is to access a youth crisis services.
"Families experiencing domestic and family violence make it unsafe for young people to remain in the home, and this is often exacerbated by the lack of safe tenure which leads to young people seeking refuge in our services."
"This in turn places a heavy burden on the hospital and justice system which could be prevented by addressing the issues at an early stage.
"When young people are offered suitable support and adequate housing they are able to continue their education and find meaningful study and employment."
Both organisations agreed additional funding was imperative to reducing the rate of homelessness in WA.
In a media statement, Minister for Housing Brendon Grylls said the Liberal-National Government was on track to hit its target of 30,000 affordable homes by 2020.
"Through the strategy, the State Government has a range of initiatives that are addressing many aspects of housing affordability - from homelessness through to home ownership," he said.
"It emphasises the importance of partnering across government, the private sector and not-for-profit organisations as well as the creation of opportunities across the housing continuum, from social housing for people on very low incomes, through to home ownership for people on low-moderate incomes."
Mr Grylls said the Keystart home loan strategy had kept the home ownership dream 'alive' for WA locals.
However Mr Hall said there were still many households on a low income in WA who were ineligible to access social housing, and still had limited alternative housing options.
