Advertisement

City kept in the dark

City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder mayor Ron Yuryevich says the council has not been informed about construction work to replace the Graeme Street Hostel.

The Kalgoorlie Miner can report the Department for Child Protection has been building a youth group home on Aslett Drive behind the existing hostel.

DCP Goldfields district director Garfield Prowse said the six-bedroom group home would be built for at-risk children and was due for completion in the middle of next year.

Once completed, the hostel will close and the group home will house between four and six children at one time.

“We will use it as an assessment facility for children where we need to take them into care,” Mr Prowse said. “It will be for 10 weeks up to about three months while we can do some kind of assessment to better match them to carers in the family network or match them with foster carers.”

There will be security for the group home, but the children will not be detained, with Mr Prowse describing it as “a big family home”.