Just a little dash of common sense will fix it...

A few facts...

Only a very small percentage of Public Housing dwellings are 1 bedroom units.
Consequently, there is a HUGE percentage of 2 bedroom dwellings being occupied by single people.

Fact 2: It is NOT EASY to find a swap. Even with the super efficient Our House Swap website it can still be hard to find something that suits your needs.

Fact 3: It is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to get a transfer through the official channels - the average wait being 2 years.

State Housing Authorities rely on a large percentage of people to get so frustrated with the process, that they will give up their housing security and move into private rental just to obtain appropriate housing for their family.

So when you do find a compatible swap, it is like WINNING THE LOTTERY!

When Mrs T and the Dean family found each other and liked each other's properties - they thought all their dreams had come true.

Mrs T lived in a 3 bedroom freestanding house with a big back yard. All her children had grown up and moved on and now she needed to downsize - but she still needed an occasional carer to stay overnight with her due to health problems.

The Dean family had two young children and another one on the way. They were all crammed into a two bedroom unit with nowhere for the children to play.

Perfect match I hear you cry!

But alas - that's when the dream turned into a nightmare.

It takes a special kind of callous indifference to screw up such a positive step forward for both families. Enter Housing Tasmania...

The game is called Pass The Buck - Make Excuses - Deny All Responsibility - Don't Make a Decision - Collect Pay - Get Promotion.

Firstly - it took over 4 weeks for someone to look at the forms.

Mrs T's was rejected citing that she was only entitled to a 1 bedroom.
At this point, a dash of common sense would tell any reasonable person that finding a swap from a 3 bd to a 1 bd and vice versa would be non-existant.

Mrs T then produced a medical certificate to say that it was sometimes necessary for her to have overnight care.
A dash of common sense would have seen the oversight righted.
These are, after all, real people - not just numbers or statistics.

No luck. Mrs T was denied a second time.

The POLICY states:

Where the property sought is equal to or one level higher than the household’s standard entitlement (according to the housing entitlement table) the property may be considered appropriate and the application should proceed. ... Decisions should reflect sound stock management principles.

Two weeks later she was granted an interview with a Housing Supervisor who callously told her that "there is no way in hell you will be approved for the unit". Housing Tasmania then attempted to force her to sign papers for a 1 bd Transfer - which could take anything up to 2 years to find an appropriate unit. When she refused to sign, the Supervisor told her to "just stay where you are then."

So in Housing's view, it is better to let Mrs T rattle around in a house way too large for her, with a yard she can't maintain and leave the Dean family squished into a tiny unit... rather than apply a dash of common sense and allow the swap.

Let's repeat the Policy:

Decisions should reflect sound stock management principles.

Up the food chain... to the people who are tasked to oversee and investigate (stupid) decisions made by public servants... the elected representatives of the PEOPLE.
Unfortunately, the elected representative of the Dean family, Mr Scott Bacon MP, did not investigate the case, but simply regurgitated the line fed to him by the public servants.
[I bet it was a form letter - they have about 20 different versions - I've got enough form letters to wallpaper a highrise]

The Housing Manager then reiterated that the swap was "not going to happen" and insisted that the Dean family fill in Transfer forms - which they duly did. How long was the list for a 3bd? About two years!
With another baby on the way this would leave a family of five in a 2 bedroom unit for another two years because NOBODY had an ounce of common sense.

TWO MONTHS after all this started, the stress inflicted upon all parties is taking its toll. The new Dean baby is due to make an appearance in a few short weeks but is found to be in distress and undersized. The midwife cites anxiety of the mother as the cause.

Mrs T has applied to have the decision reviewed by the Housing Review Committee.
A date is set - then cancelled.

The Minister, who is supposed to be responsible for the actions of Housing Tasmania, is informed of the debacle. [don't hold your breath that Ministers ever do anything but send out more form letters]
Surprise Surprise. Regardless of the fact that there are NO 1bd units available and that several other single people have been approved swaps to 2 bd units just the month before, the Minister regurgitates the original decision without a proper investigation.

Enter the Ombudsman. He has spent the last few weeks requesting information from Housing Tasmania with no luck. He refuses to accept the regurgitated public servant response and INSISTS that someone (anyone!) inject a dash of common sense into the situation.

He requests that the Director of Housing review the decision properly.
So now - because all the underlings are incapable of making a common sense decision, the Director of Housing has to step in and sort out their mess.

And so - as all good fairytales go - we have a happy ending.
The swap can now go ahead because of pressure from the Ombudsman who seems to be the ONLY one with any common sense.

I wish I could report that this situation was exceptional. Alas, this sort of chaos occurs every day in every office - and the Ombudsman is not always there to sort out the red tape.

***

Huge congratulations to Mrs T and the Dean Family - Perseverance really does pay off sometimes!
I wish you all wonderful, happy futures and best of luck with the new baby.

HNSW breaches tenant's privacy

How broken is the official Housing NSW Mutual Exchange system?

It's hard to tell because it's virtually impossible to get a straight answer from HNSW.

Apart from having to wait nearly two years to get a response, the official Mutual Exchange system requires the tenant to forgo all privacy in order to participate in the program.

Draconian!!

From the Mutual Exchange Form DH3003:
If you are approved for Mutual Exchange, Housing NSW will send
a letter with your name, application reference number, address and
phone number to other tenants matched by the computer system to
your property so they can contact you.
A Mutual Exchange Register, listing your property details and phone
number, will be available to other tenants at Housing NSW local
offices. Your name and address will not be listed. Tenants may look
at this Register to find a suitable swap and may make contact with
you to talk about swapping homes. If you do not give us a phone
number, your address will be provided by staff to tenants interested
in swapping with you, if they ask for it.
If you do not agree - your application cannot be registered for Mutual Exchange

Surely in this electronic day & age it should only be necessary to provide a contact phone number or email address! Names, addresses and reference numbers should remain private until initial contact has been made and all parties are satisfied that hoaxers, stalkers or time wasters have been weeded out.

One tenant has already reported strangers turning up on her doorstep late at night demanding to "inspect" their new house.

Tenant wins against HOUSING

With all the publicity lately about Queensland Housing failing to address anti-social behaviour problems, I have been flooded with emails asking where the CTTT story is.
It's in the archives - and Blogger doesn't make it easy to navigate.
So here are the relevant articles:

Where it all began - August 2009
The WIN
The damage Ferals do to our community
Making Housing accountable


Happy reading.

Revealing preliminary results from tenant survey

MORE than 72 per cent of public tenants currently affected by anti- social behaviour have not had their problem resolved or addressed appropriately by State housing departments, according to the OHSBlog survey.

A massive 65 per cent found Housing staff to be "unhelpful and disinterested", and most had been putting up with noisy neighbours for more than two years.

Anti-social behaviour, maintenance and mutual exchange are three of the bigger issues affecting tenants in public housing across Australia. As each sector of Housing is run by the State government, tenants in each state experience a different level of ineptitude from their "landlord".

The OHSBlog tenant survey has covered all three topics as well as interstate transfers and empty properties. More than 50 per cent of tenants reported that there was a vacant property in their street/ building that had been empty for more than two months, and this while the waiting list grows longer and the homeless face winter on the streets.

Any tenant in Housing can tell you that the system is broken, but just how broken depends on who you talk to. Official glossy brochures are posted out on a regular basis telling tenants how wonderful life is. Meanwhile their roof is leaking, their carpet is rotting and the neighbours are making life hell.

OHSBlog has designed the survey to try to gauge the extent of the problems experienced by tenants - and perhaps allow all parties to see the BIG picture and tackle the issues at the core instead of the Band-Aid approach that currently exists.

The survey reveals that 50 per cent of tenants don't know their rights and don't know how to make their landlord accountable. The time has come to educate them and empower them to improve their lives.

The survey will run for another two months and all tenants currently living in public housing are encouraged to fill it in and have their voice heard.

Quick Facts so far:

• 43% have requested a transfer to move away from noise or anti-social environment
• 61% have waited over a year for their transfer to be processed
• 54% have had to make between 2 and 20 reports to Housing to have their anti-social behaviour problems looked at.
• 35% of tenants have between 2 and 5 outstanding maintenance issues
• 70% have been waiting over a year for maintenance issues to be addressed and need to make more than 5 reports before a response is forthcoming
• An overwhelming 93% would like the 8 State Housing departments to allow interstate transfers.

5 Minute survey on Maintenance, Mutual Exchange and Anti-social Behaviour

One of the headaches when dealing with bureaucracy is that you are always made to feel like it's one-against-the-world.
It's hard to get your opinion heard when nobody is listening.
But when you add your voice to the crowd, very soon our mutterings turn into shouts.

Please take 5 minutes to fill in this survey about YOUR tenancy.

If we all pull together, we can move mountains!

Please Share this on Facebook, Twitter and email it to all your friends living in Public Housing.

Photos:
Do you have a photo of incomplete maintenance?

Send it to house@ourhouseswap.com.au

Send ONE PHOTO ONLY and make sure it is no bigger than 1mb.

Indigenous housing group backs eviction laws

From ABC
The Goldfields Indigenous Housing Organisation has welcomed new legislation proposed by the Western Australian Government to address unsuitable behaviour in public housing.

The legislation would allow the Department of Housing to call on the magistrates court to evict disruptive tenants.

Goldfields Indigenous Housing Organisation CEO Julia Shadlow-Bath says the new laws will give authorities more power to deal with troublesome tenants.

"We can issue you with breach notices and those breach notices could escalate to the point of an eviction notice," she said.

"It is something we always want to try and avoid because more homelessness doesn't help anyone, but at the end of the day if you are not prepared to act responsibly on our property, well there are plenty more people on the public housing list to take your place."


Please PLEASE bring this law to NSW. Ed.

Evictions of HomesWest tenants rises

From ABC News

The Department for Housing has evicted more than 150 people in the past six months as part of a crackdown on tenant eligibility.

In 2009, the State Government announced a review of the eligibility criteria for state housing tenants, to ensure they did not exceed income cut offs.

A total of 153 people have been forced to leave since November last year,

The Housing Minister Troy Buswell says changes announced last month to crackdown on anti-social tenants are also likely to lead to more people being evicted.

"I expect there will be some evictions that we'll be criticised for making but ultimately we've given a commitment to attempt to put some balance into the relationship between a Homeswest tenant and the community in which they live so that those communities are better protected," he said.

The Housing Minister Troy Buswell says anti-social tenants are being targeted.

"I expect that the department will certainly be cracking down on problematic tenants with the changes to the three strikes policy," he said.

"How that manifests itself in evictions, time will tell but I expect there will be more evictions."

Another landmark ruling to help control the Ferals

From Domain.com.au

Come in and feel the noise: landlords to pay for rowdy tenants

Photocopies stickytaped to city lamp posts offering dirt-cheap, shared-room rentals in luxury apartments could soon be a thing of the past after a landmark court ruling.

Previously, landlords who crammed partying backpackers and students into houses and apartments could ignore complaints about noise, passing them back to tenants who changed so often no one could be held responsible. But in a game-changing move, a noise-abatement order has been served on the owners, rather than their tenants, of a Double Bay apartment. The downstairs neighbours had complained for years of noise and disturbance.

Anyone breaching a noise-abatement order can face fines of up to $5500 as well as charges of contempt of court that could lead to jail terms.

For Jean Whittlam, 71, and her son Anthony, 41, the noise-abatement order marks the end of a five-year battle with the owners of the apartment above their flat in New South Head Road, Double Bay.

''We've been told this is the first time anything like this has ever happened,'' said Mr Whittlam, who said the upstairs flat had been run as a backpacker flophouse. ''It's great … It gives all of us hope.''

Landlords John and Sarah Hanna, who own more than 100 properties in the eastern suburbs, denied the allegation.

''It's an insult to call the tenants of this flat backpackers,'' Mrs Hanna, 76, said. ''They were educated people from good families who just happened to be English and Irish.''

However, Jean Whittlam claimed in court that the Hannas' tenants were often shouting and singing at night, slamming doors, playing soccer at 2am, swearing, partying and playing loud music.

The Hannas' lawyer disputed that the owners could limit the noise because they did not live in the apartment, but the magistrate, Harriet Grahame, ruled they were responsible because they could control who they leased the apartment to, for how long and, if necessary, make physical changes to the property to decrease noise.

Colin Grace, of Grace Lawyers, whose firm represented the Whittlams, said this was a landmark decision. ''It means if a landlord has been told about a problem with their tenants but does nothing about it they effectively 'adopt' the problem and are responsible for it.''

Recent changes in the tenancy laws allowing landlords to demand written consent before tenants can sublet mean owners have even less excuse for not knowing who lives in a property.

WA: Unruly tenants to face tougher rules

ABC News - Tuesday, 05 April, 2011

The state government is to toughen up its three strikes public housing policy.

Under the policy introduced in 2009, Homeswest tenants could be evicted if they were involved in criminal or disruptive behaviour on three occasions.

The Housing Minister Troy Buswell says under the new rules, there will be three categories of anti-social behaviour.

He has told the ABC the most serious breaches, which will include the manufacture of drugs and behaviour leading to restraining orders, will result in legal action to evict the tenant.

"I expect that these and other changes will see, well our desire is to see more people who disrupt their neighbourhoods and don't act appropriately as Homeswest tenants evicted," he said.

A caller to the ABC, Maureen says she has complained about problem state housing tenants next door to her for a long time and the three strikes policy is not working.

"I went through those years with the complaints coming in and then all of a sudden it changed and it had to be three strikes, well, the three strikes came up and we're still waiting," she said.

The three categories include dangerous behaviour which will instigate immediate proceedings to evict the tenant.

The serious category will cover drunken or abusive behaviour where the tenant will get one warning but will be evicted if another incident occurs within 12 months.

Minor incidents will include anti-social behaviour with which the tenant could face eviction if they have three strikes in 12 month period.

Please Mr O'Farrell - can we have the same in NSW.

Worthy - not just Needy

As the Ferals increasing take over public housing and as the public servants stand by and watch the communities spiral into ghettos, we ask what can be done to properly MANAGE public housing and their occupants.

I can hear the bleeding hearts now - "but the Ferals will be homeless if we evict them". Well so be it. Perhaps that is exactly what is needed - a stint of homelessness - to make them appreciate what the State has provided for them. Why don't we round up the existing Homeless and swap them with the Ferals. I'll bet the Homeless will be so grateful for a roof that, given the opportunity, they'll become model tenants. If they genuinely believed that bad behaviour would leave them back on the streets, then behold a transformation.

It has to be more than just "needy" to rid Housing of the Feral mentality. We have to develop a sense of "worthy". Who are the people who DESERVE a home; who have EARNED the right to live in decent communities; who have made ADVANCES in their life and IMPROVEMENTS to their house; who have taken full advantage of the OPPORTUNITY given to them and are WORTHY of tax-payer funded homes.

It may seem like a hard line and I am not talking about the genuine mental illness cases (which should be managed more effectively by the Health Service, but that's another story). I am talking about the Ferals who CHOOSE to be Ferals, those who have no boundaries and no clue about how normal people behave and generally just don't give a sh!t about anyone but themselves.

All tenants sign a lease with certain conditions about looking after the property and being a good neighbour. There is now a policy of "Renewable Tenancy" to encourage good behaviour. But just like a child screaming for lollies, or a dog being house-trained, if there are no CONSEQUENCES for bad actions then the policy is not worth the paper it is written on.

In fact the opposite is the case. Ferals learn very quickly that they can get away with anything - NO amount of bad behaviour will see them evicted.
And why NOT?
Because the Ferals are also "victims". They play the victim card to any bleeding heart in Housing, DoCS, Centrelink who allow them to perpetuate being a victim and indeed encourages the victim mentality.

Always someone else is to blame. They are a victim of their upbringing, of society, of their race, of their poverty. They become powerless to break away from being victims and this gives them carte blanche to commit any crime, any bad behaviour, any vandalism or harrassment that suits their needs.

About 10 years ago, South Australia targeted the 100 worst Feral families and enforced their Anti-Social Behaviour Policy. The Ferals weren't just moved on to create havoc in another community, they were evicted or placed under Acceptable Behaviour Agreements.

This needs to happen every year, in every State. Take action against the 100 worst Ferals and watch the whole attitude towards Public Housing change!