Shelter NSW opposes the state government’s move to reverse the onus of proof for public housing tenants facing eviction so that tenants must prove why their tenancy should continue.
“This reverses hundreds of years of the development of common law, and the presumption of innocence, and makes housing even more insecure – and this is for tenants already facing major problems. For many, public housing is the only stable element in their lives”. said Shelter executive officer Mary Perkins today.
“We regret that the government appears to be attempting to reduce public housing to the same level of insecurity as in the private rental market,” she said.
At the same time, Shelter NSW accepts the need to address problems of anti-social behaviour on estates by early intervention and by providing adequate services and support to at-risk tenants.
Shelter NSW calls for an independent review of the renewable tenancies scheme in public housing before the State government makes any moves to change residential tenancies legislation.
Shelter said the Department should analyse the reasons why any renewable tenancies have failed or been terminated so as to understand the individual circumstances of the tenants and to identify strategies that better support tenants to maintain their tenancies.
“The fact is, that as the landlord of last resort, the Department of Housing is inheriting the problems of deinstitutionalisation and lack of adequate social security, welfare, health and employment services.
“Other relevant departments need to kick in and provide adequate resources to support these people. The major role of the Department of Housing is to provide affordable secure housing and it is unrealistic to expect it pick up the responsibilities of other parts of government.” said Mary Perkins.
She said Shelter accepted that in some circumstances, where anti-social behaviour was impacting on the surrounding community, individually-tailored “acceptable behaviour agreements” might be acceptable.
This was dependent on them ensuring adequate and early provision of services and support, and on their being treated as means of saving tenancies rather than ending them.
The development of interagency specialist response teams could be a creative means of ensuring this.
“This is a case for finding answers, not simply throwing people out and recycling problems elsewhere in the system.”
CONTACT: Mary Perkins, w. 9267 5733, h.9365 1028, mob. 0419 919 091