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.

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.

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.

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.

How to make Housing accountable - the Basics

I have had many requests from other victims of anti-social neighbours to produce a "how to" guide... so here it is:

How to put Housing on notice that you are not going to take this anymore!

Firstly - print out this statement in large letters and stick it on your fridge; say it to yourself every morning and repeat it to every Housing staff member you encounter:

I have a RIGHT to quiet enjoyment of my property.

The Landlord must take all reasonable steps TO ENSURE that my other neighbouring tenants do not interfere with my reasonable peace, comfort or privacy.

Tenant SUES Housing NSW - and WINS!!!

Last August we reported on a tenant who was taking HNSW to the CTTT for their failure to deal appropriately with her anti-social neighbour.

We are pleased to announce that SHE WON !!!

It took 7 months to go through 3 court hearings - the only defence offered by Housing was a handful of fabricated incident reports with incorrect dates and fictitious events. With over 100 pages of evidence against the noisy neighbour, none of which had been acted upon in two years, Housing's position was indefensible.

Keeping up with the FERALS

Further to our story about where all the money goes... the DoH tenant who trashed her 2 bedroom house and was rewarded by HNSW with a nice new 4 bedroom property, left this mess and a ~$5000 damage bill for Housing to take care of.

The rotting putrid pile in the backyard

The patio

The kitchen which was only one year old

The carpet which was new

The walls which were painted recently...

And now it is boarded up and uninhabitable

Where does all the money go?

From a HNSW tenant:
I've been waiting 13 months to get a downpipe fixed. Simple job. It's been assessed by the Assets Team but they say they "have no money". They haven't had any money for 13 months. Every month it's the same excuse. Now, because of the leaking downpipe, the window has rotted. Now they have to find the money for the downpipe AND the window. It took about 3 months for the benchtops to become swollen - because the window leaked - because the downpipe was broken. You get the picture...

Recently my neighbour moved out. The best word to describe my neighbour was "feral". She lived like a pig, she acted like a pig. She left the yard like this:

 

The ultimate LIMP FISH response.

"... creating harmonious communities..."

Sounds nice, doesn't it.

Should be fairly easy to achieve. Putting like minded people together creates harmony - strengthens a community.

It's the concept behind the Over 55's units. It’s the strategy used with various ethnic groups: language, customs, support and culture… tenants are much happier where they feel they “belong”.

The opposite is the recipe for disaster. For example, allocating a unit to a transgender lady in a block where a known violent homophobe resides would just be asking for trouble. Putting a young, uneducated mother with a brood of unruly children in the middle of an elderly estate would be inviting failure.

So asking HNSW to uphold their own policy and allocate to "create a harmonious community" should elicit a positive response and beneficial outcome for all.

I have personally witnessed two occasions where HNSW have “hand-picked” tenants to ensure that harmony is maintained. It was so successful that the Minister used it in a press release as an example of “good design” in tenant allocation, and  “creating prosperous communities”.

Good tenants forced to vacate for Christmas

Good tenants are being forced to leave their homes this Christmas and move into anonymous motels because Housing NSW won’t act to control bad neighbours.

Mrs T left her unit this morning and is now living in a cheap motel. “I couldn’t afford to stay in a motel in my own neighbourhood with my friends” said Mrs T, “It’s going to be a very lonely Christmas for me”.

Mrs T’s neighbours have a long history of anti-social behaviour but their violence has increased since school holidays started.

All talk - No action. Kristina Keneally comes to Waterloo

Last Friday I attended yet another Housing Forum - where the same old people trotted out the same old rhetoric.
The only difference was the Premier of NSW regurgitated it and spat it in our faces.

Here is my response to her:

Dear Ms Keneally,

I was disappointed but not surprised by your "housing forum" display in Waterloo last Friday.

Catch 22. Dealing with Anti-Social Behaviour.

For those who haven’t read Joseph Heller’s fine book, Catch 22 is a situation whereby no matter what you do, you can’t win.

For example:
One cannot get a job in a high-profile occupation without prior experience, but they cannot get experience without getting a job in a high-profile area.

Another example that Housing NSW use to full effect:
It takes longer than 30 days for staff to action an incident report.
Any incident reports over 30 days old are not current enough to use.

Tenant SUES Housing NSW

Residential Tenancies Act 2010 - Sect 50
(3) A landlord or landlord's agent must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the landlord's other neighbouring tenants do not interfere with the reasonable peace, comfort or privacy of the tenant in using the residential premises.

A tenant has lodged an application with the NSW Consumer, Trader & Tenancy Tribunal asking for the refund of rent since Oct 08 worth over $7000 because, they claim, Housing NSW have failed to address a noisy neighbour problem for nearly two years.

This is not a case to determine whether the neighbour is or isn't excessively noisy - it is a case about the failure of Housing to implement their own policies and promptly address issues raised by tenants.

Interstate Swaps

All the Housing departments in Australia are run by each State Government - and none of them allow Interstate swaps. This includes ACT to NSW and across borders like Tweed Heads to Coolangatta.

To me, this policy seems ridiculous - each property would have a rent paying tenant, so why would DoH care where the tenant originated from?

Is there a NEED for Interstate Swaps?

Mutual Exchange and Transfers

I would like to hear your experiences of the Mutual Exchange program.
How did you find a swap; how long did you wait; how many properties were you offered by DoH; were they suitable properties; did you swap or were you transfered etc

Start with which state you are from.
I DO NOT want to hear details about WHY you wanted to swap - personal stories of family situations are not relevant.
What is relevant is how you were treated by Housing staff, how the system did or did not work for you.

Positive stories are just as welcome as negative stories.

Introduction

Our House Swap has been running now for about 10 years. It is run by a tenant and has no official standing with any of the 8 Depts of Housing. We have facilitated contact between thousands of tenants and have had hundreds of successful swaps. The OHS website works way better than the official DoH run Mutual Exchange Program or Transfer system because the tenants have control.

To me - living in public housing is a PRIVILEGE not a RIGHT - but so many tenants spoil it for the good ones by trashing their properties and not valuing their communities. These are also the people most vocal about how bad Housing workers are - when actually, they contribute nothing to improving their lot in life.

I had considered attaching a blog before, but feared it would turn into one big whingefest. However, several things have happened in the past few months which have prompted me to set up this blog - with the main purpose being to gather information from other tenants about issues which affect them. Real issues - not whinges about a tap not being fixed or a dog barking - I want to collate real information that I can feed back to the "Powers That Be", so that they can get a true understanding of the issues tenants face.

This is not about me - so don't expect lots of blog posts - this is about YOU and your contributions as tenants.

Now, having said that, I don't have a huge amount of time to read and process all the info floating around in the ether - and I have very little tolerance for personal gripes or "victims" - so if there is someone else out there who would like to pitch in and help improve the standards of how Housing workers treat tenants - then please email me.

OHS Admin

One last thing - I am a DoH tenant and I value my privacy - so you will understand why I don't reveal my real contact details.