Did
you know that in the financial year of
2012/13 the
Victorian
Liberal Coalition government
tried to vacate 5,478
public housing properties by applying for thousands of
eviction notices to be sent to the occupants? Only
304 of these proposed evictions were approved by VCAT.
Lets look
at the article in question. See link below.
As stated
by the CEO of the Tenants Union – eviction from public housing
often results in homelessness. Public housing
is the last stop. But unfortunately there is
no subsequent condemnation of this action against public tenants by
the state government from the Tenants Union.
And who
are the mysterious, unidentified 'public
housing advocates' - sometimes quoted in
newspaper articles - who invariably echo government housing policy and
attempt to justify
such actions against public tenants?
We know
that the focus of these eviction notices was on rental
arrears.
It would
be interesting to know how much arrears needed to occur before the department applied for Notices to Vacate. What
measures, if any, were taken to resolve outstanding rental arrears
before deciding
on this course of action ?
Instead of
addressing these issues, the article goes off on a different tangent
- bringing up hackneyed stories of the Big Bad Anti-Social Public
Tenant. Two examples are given which include drug deals, sawn off
shotguns, steel bars, and even the hurling of eggs ..
But
these thousands of intended evictions were not
about antisocial behaviour – the matter at
hand was overwhelmingly rental arrears.
To raise lurid examples of 'antisocial behaviour' only serves to
further stigmatise and misrepresent public
tenants which is very unfair.
The
real story
here is of an unconscionable attempt by the government of the day to
clear properties which would result in homelessness for individuals
and families. The question to ask is
what was the government's real agenda in doing this? The article says that the government's objective was to reclaim the properties.
THE
LANGUAGE OF EVICTIONS
The CEO of
the Tenants Union refers to tenants being 'booted' out of public
housing.
Public
tenant evictions are often described by media in this way.
Apparently we don't get evicted like other
people - with all the trauma that evictions and impending
homelessness brings – including the trauma to families and
children. No.
All too often we read of public tenants being kicked out, thrown out,
turfed out, chucked out, and booted out of their public housing
homes. Into homelessness ...
In spite
of my criticism regarding the bias demonstrated in this article - at least the Herald Sun
reported this important information. I have found no reference to the applications made by the previous Victorian government to vacate 5,478
households in any other mainstream newspaper
…
Public tenants are a group very much at risk of homelessness, and an example like this one, of an attempt to evict en masse thousands of public tenants, in the course of a year, should be more widely known.
Thankfully the Victorian Civil Administration Tribunal - VCAT - threw out the vast majority of these applications.
Public tenants are a group very much at risk of homelessness, and an example like this one, of an attempt to evict en masse thousands of public tenants, in the course of a year, should be more widely known.
Thankfully the Victorian Civil Administration Tribunal - VCAT - threw out the vast majority of these applications.
***************************
The
children in this photo belong to the close-knit public housing
community where I live.
They'd been playing a lively game of soccer.
Sources
Only 304 evictions upheld out of 5478 = a paltry 5%
ReplyDeleteIs the responsible Victorian government business, the Office of Housing?
Whatever their name, it's hardly indicative of criteria that were administered with what you'd expect in the way of understanding for those in need.
Whatever happened to the Australian sense of "a fair go"?
Disappointed,
Ivanhoe