{"id":527753,"date":"2026-03-09T00:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527753\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T00:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:39:11","slug":"federal-funding-pulled-from-wa-charity-helping-people-struggling-with-cost-of-living-leaving-futures-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527753\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal funding pulled from WA charity helping people struggling with cost of living, leaving futures uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 81 years old, Elizabeth Wright never imagined she would come close to sleeping on the street.<\/p>\n

Last year, the pensioner fell behind on her soaring rental payments, and her landlord gave her 60 days’ notice when the owner decided to sell the home.<\/p>\n

“I really thought I was going to live on the street,” she told the ABC.<\/p>\n

Without family support, Ms Wright had already been relying on Wattle House \u2014 a charity in south-east Perth \u2014 for help.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Wright says the assistance she got from Wattle House was a great help. (ABC News: Daryna Zadvirna)<\/p>\n

Operated by Mission Australia, the service provides food and financial assistance for rent, medicine, clothes, fuel, and other living necessities.<\/p>\n

Living alone and often forced to go without meals, Ms Wright said it played a critical role in keeping her afloat.<\/p>\n

Funding blow<\/p>\n

But after losing federal funding in October, the service may soon shut down.<\/p>\n

Despite experiencing a fourfold increase in demand over the past two years, staff say they will have to turn away thousands amid the cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n

“There were times I didn’t have very much to eat,” Ms Wright said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Wright is facing a grim housing reality. (ABC News: Daryna Zadvirna)<\/p>\n

“Without that help, I honestly don’t know where I’d be \u2026 I’ve been through it, and I’m still sort of going through it.”<\/p>\n

For single mother-of-six Nyabuony, Wattle House was a lifeline after fleeing from an abusive partner in Victoria with her children and arriving in WA with nowhere to live.<\/p>\n

Nyabuony spent weeks in motels and refuges before being referred to Wattle House earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nyabuony came to rely on Wattle House after fleeing an abusive relationship. (ABC News: Daryna Zadvirna)<\/p>\n

“I was homeless \u2026 I didn’t know anybody here,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got three daughters that need a childcare, and I cannot afford it, so I’m not working and it’s very difficult at the moment.”<\/p>\n

The service helped furnish her home, provided food and vouchers, and connected her with financial counsellors and TAFE.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nyabuony says the service was invaluable in rebuilding her life.\u00a0 (ABC News: Daryna Zadvirna)<\/p>\n

But the young mother said since the service lost funding, assistance has become more sporadic and she is afraid for when it runs out altogether.<\/p>\n

Nyabuony\u00a0said her budget was so stretched, providing three meals per day for her children was challenging.<\/p>\n

“Food doesn’t last two weeks \u2014 maybe one,” she said.<\/p>\n

‘I can’t help you’<\/p>\n

Wattle House program manager Leanne Jayaseela said stories like Elizabeth’s and Nyabuony’s are becoming increasingly common.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Leanne Jayaseela is worried more people will be turned away. (ABC News: Daryna Zadvirna)<\/p>\n

Ms Jayaseela said many people are one crisis away from being in the same position.<\/p>\n

Pulling together amid cost of living pressures<\/a><\/p>\n

The WA Council of Social Services has found single-parent families are falling short of covering the cost of basics by $90 a week, while the shortfall for renting pensioners is $70.<\/p>\n

“We’re seeing people who never thought they’d need help,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They’re struggling with paying rent. They’re struggling with just putting regular meals on the table.”<\/p>\n

A Lotterywest grant is keeping the service temporarily operating at limited capacity but its future beyond the middle of this year is uncertain.<\/p>\n

“We we’re trying to deal with the fallout of that and it’s having to say no to people,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s having to see people come with the door closed. It’s having to say ‘I’m so sorry, but no, I can’t help you’.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A notice telling people about funding cuts to Wattle House. (ABC News: Daryna Zadvirna)<\/p>\n

People struggling<\/p>\n

Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics found annual living costs increased for all household types by between 2.3 and 4.2 per cent last year.<\/p>\n

As WA resident faces eviction, more questions about community housing<\/a><\/p>\n

Community housing is seen as a way for the government to tackle the housing crisis, but some people are falling through the cracks.<\/p>\n

Higher housing and food costs were the main drivers, according to the ABS, and these were two of the biggest and least avoidable expenses in household budgets.<\/p>\n

A Department of Social Services spokesperson told the ABC that funding for emergency relief has increased across the country.<\/p>\n

“The government continues to closely monitor the demand for financial wellbeing and capability programs to ensure we are responding to the emerging needs of communities,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

They added that the south-east Perth region will be supported by funding provided to other emergency relief providers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 81 years old, Elizabeth Wright never imagined she would come close to sleeping on the street. Last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,262348,262349,262347,2610,134,180667,17174,17173,86,45,262350],"class_list":{"0":"post-527753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-charity-funding","11":"tag-charity-funding-cut","12":"tag-charity-relief","13":"tag-cost-of-living","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-mission-australia","16":"tag-news-perth","17":"tag-news-wa","18":"tag-perth-news","19":"tag-wa-news","20":"tag-wattle-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}