Another Submission to the Upper House Inquiry into Homelessness
by long term Public Housing and Homelessness activist, Beryl Jarrett.
Big thumbs up for all your hard work and dedication Beryl. 💗👍 Great submission.
To all concerned,
It is clear from Public Housing and homelessness groups and individuals and from the available evidence that homelessness could be avoided if enough Public Housing were to be made available.
Public Housing means housing owned and managed by Government.
Public Housing does satisfy the needs of homeless and those vulnerable to homelessness because rents are fixed at 25% of tenants` income, they have security of tenure, and all those on low incomes are accepted.
State Governments have instead for the past 30 years been handing over the management and/or ownership of their housing to private Housing Associations, also known as Community Housing.
As well, State and Federal Governments have provided those Associations and private investors with other subsidy and financial support to provide what they mistakenly call “affordable housing”, which in any case is well beyond the financial means of the homeless and those vulnerable to homelessness.
The Housing Associations charge well above 25% of the tenants` income, do not give security of tenure, and cherrypick those they want, leading to many higher income tenants being given priority over those on lower incomes.
Further adding to the problem, Government-owned land has been sold off to private investors, and 100% Public Housing estates demolished, to be replaced by a combination of private housing and Housing Association-managed and/or owned properties.
The solution to homelessness is therefore:
1. Keep management and ownership of existing Public Housing in the hands of Government- no more give aways or sale to private ownership, including Housing Associations.
2. Build as much Government owned and managed housing as is needed as soon as possible- in Victoria we need at least 40,000 new units to provide for those on the Public Housing waiting list, but more would be on the list if the wait werent so long, and the list will probably increase in number because of the likely increase in house prices and rents and economic hardship.
3. Retain as much Government land as is needed for current and future Public Housing, and re-development to be 100% Public Housing until all Public Housing needs are met.
4.Government funding for housing to be exclusively for Public Housing until the waiting list is cleared, then only for non-Public Housing after all Public Housing needs are met into the future.
5.There is probably no need to demolish current Public Housing Estates which are capable of being renovated. There is probably enough land and money to satisfy Public Housing requirements, and demolition unnecessarily disrupts tenants`lives and destroys established communities, as well as wasting resources and disrupting surrounding neighborhoods.
6. The current Social Housing Renewal Programme of the State Government actually violates many of these principles and should be scrapped.
7. An additional point to consider is that with all the building required, it would make more financial sense for the State Government to re-establish a Housing Construction Department, to build the Public Housing directly, rather than its current policy of Public-Private construction, where the Government provides the funding, and the work is done privately and for profit.
Beryl Jarrett - submission 175
Beryl's submission is spot on, alas the Victorian Government has no desire to build further public housing residences and over time is hell-bent on transferring much of the existing stock to non-government providers. A further aspect to Beryl's point 5 the demolishing and renovating of existing estates is that many current tenants find they are unable to return to their estate despite prior assurances made to them. This is because their may be now fewer residences, the mix has changed and some were sold off. A most unsatisfactory result for tenants who have no security of tenure.
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