NESB Housing Taskforce NSW |
1. Minutes of the previous meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted and seconded by Aynalem and Martha respectively.
2. New business
2.1 Survey of Housing NSW telephone advice lines
Discussion was based on answering the questions on the survey. It was suggested that attendees to the meeting would take this back with them and fill It appropriately. It was also suggested that the survey be made available on soft copy as this would make it easier to email it back or even to email it to appropriate workers within organizations. There was also discussion around the translating services and the shortcomings facing this service.
A question was raised in regards to the percentage of new arrivals going through the IHSS programs in terms of their English levels when they exit the service.
To follow up with Mark Lack. Mark was able to provide information to this regard. He stated that most of the ones coming through to the service had no written or spoken English but as they exited the service, they had achieved a level two of English. Based on this information, it was suggested that maybe as Housing NSW needs to look at modifying their interpreting service to cater for this group of client.
There was also a discussion based on the challenges faced by organizations in terms of utilizing limited funding to source interpreting resources especially through existing communities. In addition to this, it is important to ensure that crucial services such as police, homelessness and DV lines etc are available in the specific multi lingual languages. This would be of great help especially if a situation does arise after hours when most organizations are closed. There needs to be a focus on terminology as well. This could help in making sure that there is no misunderstanding.
Unrealistic expectations seem to be a general point of discussion amongst attendees. There needs to be a clear distinct policy and procedure from Housing NSW as some of their procedures are very grey. For example, in regards to priority housing, an applicant needs to fit a certain criteria and one the criteria is that they prove that they have tried to resolve the issue of homelessness. Now this seems to a very vague expectation in that Housing NSW hasn’t really stated how one can prove this. There was suggestion that Housing NSW needs to take an active role in getting involved with NESB organizations and communities to help develop the internal programs.
2.2 Issues relating to Housing NSW
3. Reports
3.1 Refugee Support Network
Eighty per cent of settlement within South-West Sydney was in Liverpool and Fairfield.
3.2 Shelter NSW on social housing letter-writing campaign
It was quite successful.
3.3 Access to community housing
There has been quite a huge increase of access to property through community housing providers.
It was suggested that there is a need to community housing providers come and discuss about the policy on allocations. It is important as a task force to get an understanding of the common access to property allocations. We have identified that each community housing provider has its own set of procedures. It was suggested that we need to approach these housing providers to provide more information on the allocation process.
Mark Lack, Adama Kamara and Martha Nyamu will organise a meeting with various community housing providers and will feedback at the next NESB meeting.
4. Any other business
Tenancy law reform is happening and submissions are due by 18 December 2009. A copy is available from the website of NSW Fair Trading. In addition to this, the Tenants’ Union of NSW would be a good resource for information in regards to the above.
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Updated
02-Feb-2010