You
might be very surprised to learn this.
It
is not widely known -and yet it ought to be ..It is a matter of public interest.
Recently
there was a review into the Victorian Human Rights Charter.
Community
Housing Federation of Victoria ( CHFV ) - the peak body for Community
Housing Organisations has put in a submission in which they
dispute whether the Human Rights Charter should apply to them.
CHFV
claims that it was not the original intention of the Human Rights
Charter, at the time of its introduction, that it apply to Community
Housing Organisations. The peak body goes on to argue why the
term 'public authority' should not apply to them.
Only
governments and public authorities are legally bound to comply with
the Human Rights Charter. Therefore this is an extremely disturbing
position taken by the peak body of Community Housing which owns
and /or manages over 18,000 properties in Victoria.
It
is a legal argument of great significance and serious ramifications. After
all we are talking here about people's right to housing.
If
Community Housing Organisations are not deemed to be Public
Authorities then they would be exempt from the need to comply with
the Human Rights Charter when dealing with their tenants.
Depending
on the outcome of the review, many vulnerable people who are
presently living in Community Housing could lose the essential
protection of the Charter.
In
its submission to the Review, Legal Aid Victoria also
discusses this issue and stresses the importance of the Human Rights
Charter in protecting and enforcing the rights of disadvantaged
people against powerful agencies. It gives an example where potential
breaches of the Charter were brought to the attention of a Community
Housing Provider which claimed that it did not consider itself to be
a 'public authority' and therefore the Human Rights Charter did not
apply to them.
Interestingly,
one of the purposes of the Human Rights Charter Review is to decide
on this very issue ie. 'clarifying the provisions regarding public
authorities, including the identification of public authorities and
the content of their human rights obligations.'
With
so much at stake riding on this decision we can only hope that this
'independent review' is not about to weaken the Charter or its
application…
In
light of any future proposed mass transfers of thousands of public
housing stock to 'community housing' businesses – the outcome of
this review of the Human Rights Charter is also of great interest to
public tenants.
In
Victoria the largest group of people making up our public tenant
communities have some form of disability- physical or mental. The
government knows full well the documented level of genuine
disadvantage of people living in public housing.
The
government has a Duty of Care to its tenants and part of that duty is
to ensure their ongoing protection under the Charter.
What
is made abundantly clear in CHFV's submission is the tension
experienced between their business interests on the one hand and
their social obligations under the Charter on the other.
Friends
of Public Housing Victoria has maintained all along that market
based 'social' or 'community housing' is not the answer to
providing housing for low income people and will not solve, but
rather exacerbate the housing crisis. This is evidenced in countries
where 'social housing' has been implemented and has failed,
resulting in gross profiteering and an epidemic of homelessness.
Regardless
of whether Community Housing Providers and Associations qualify as
Public Authorities -and many would argue that they definitely do -
they should nevertheless have voluntarily embraced their legal
obligations under the Charter anyway, in line with progressive global
trends.
Community
Housing Organisations want to take over public housing properties
and/or the tenancies of many people with high and complex needs –
and at the same time they argue that they should be exempt from any
legal obligation to comply with the Human Rights Charter by
challenging their definition as a public authority …??
For
heaven's sake, things just keep going from bad to worse in this
country when it comes to the housing rights of people at the lowest
end of the economic scale.
The
outcome of this review will be tabled on 1st October 2015.
We
will keep you posted.
In
this blog we try to cover housing issues from the perspective of
public tenants and in support of public housing. Many of these issues
are not being covered in the mainstream media.
Sources :
See
Heading 'What other people have said'
Submission
by Community Housing Federation Victoria
= submission no. 45 ( p.4-5 )
Submission
by Victorian Legal Aid
= submission no. 93 ( p11.)
http://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/index.php/the-charter
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