TALKING TO THE MAN ON THE STREET

 PETER

'The problem you lot are facing is waking people up to the importance of your cause.
If a problem does not affect them personally, people basically switch off. People are busy living their own lives.

Of course the privatisation of public housing affects them. It affects all of us.
One person's homelessness is another person's problem.

We are certainly rich enough in Australia - there should be no homelessness at all.

If they taxed the multinationals for a start and utilized this money correctly and efficiently we would have a fairer society. The system is basically corrupt. The people at the top are taking, taking, taking and the people at the bottom are missing out. That's our system - capitalism.

The people in power are paid off to have a particular agenda. Maybe politicians started out with good intentions but they get swallowed up by the system. In the end they don't have a voice - they have to conform or they're out. Conform to a greedy ideology. In the end they just become lying hypocrites. Puppets. They do what they are told to do. I don't have time for politicians at all. That's why I don't vote. I took my name off the electoral roll. There's no point in voting.

And don't forget they're on good incomes and pensions for life. They're not going to rock the boat. Money talks. Politics nowadays is all about individuals getting their leg up on the ladder of their careers. There's a real absence of any discussion about what is good for the society as a whole - what's the right thing for the health and well-being of our society.

Most politicians get their education from middle or upper class schools. Mostly what they are learning is how the system works - and what the system tells them. There's a whole world outside this system. They don't get that.

They don't really have empathy for the people on the bottom.

Take aged care... Its a shambles. There's not enough money given for aged care - just like with housing and education. You see, there's no profit in these areas unless they are privatised. The government says there is not enough money to fund these services. Why not?  What's going on? Who's skimming it ?

My Dad ended up in a nursing home. One or two nurses for fifteen patients. Elderly people who can't walk and need to use the toilet. They call out for assistance and end up soiling themselves. Where's the dignity for our elderly citizens? Nurses are so stressed they leave the industry and they get in people on overseas visas. And the nursing home I'm describing, where my Dad lived, was by no means the worst. It was considered a reasonably good one. That's why when my Mum got dementia I looked after her at home. I was her carer.


Anyway that's what I think on the matter.  Good luck with your campaign'.

SAVE PUBLIC HOUSING - GET INVOLVED

Quotes by Deb Chapman
Community Development Worker
https://au.linkedin.com/in/deb-chapman-488b0311


"When well-meaning people and middle class organisations get captured by the Affordable Housing lobby, they take their eye off the main ball, which is the reduction of Public Housing."

" Friends of Public Housing Victoria show insightful analysis about the importance of Public Housing to our communities and broader society."

INTIMIDATION

Here is an account by a Friends of Public Housing member in the Western suburbs while collecting signatures for the campaign. This information was written up in an incident report at the time with the local Neighbourhood House in the area.

It happened while the Liberals were in power in Victoria, and it illustrates another example of the ongoing disempowerment of public tenants - especially regarding the politically sensitive issue of transferring public housing stock - our homes - to non government housing businesses.

Deliberate disempowerment, of one form or another, is ongoing.

Another public tenant and member of FOPHV was very concerned about the proposed take-over of public housing by 'community housing' organisations and the changes that would take place as a result of it.

Only a few weeks ago, she asked her local housing officer, 'What's all this about community and social housing?'  She was told that there is no point in discussing it until it happens. Of course by then it is too late.
                                      

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It is unknown what organisation or government department the people in the car belonged to.

          

Gathering petitions, going door to door in Adamson Street Braybrook I saw a brand new car going into a set of units. There were three people in the car. As I got closer to the units, I saw them coming away from the units. One of them approached me. She asked me what I was doing and I told her that I was collecting petitions against the privatisation of public housing. She wanted to look at the petition so I showed her. She then wrote down the BMSPTA ( Braybrook Maidstone Sunshine Public Tenants Association ) contact number and told me that the Friends for Public Housing document and the petition were illegal because it didn’t have a signature on it. I asked her who she was. She didn’t respond. She asked me what I was getting out of it. I told her that it was volunteer work. She then got in the car and left. I went to the units. When I knocked on the door the people wouldn’t sign the petition as they had been told not to sign by the people in that car. I don’t know where they were from. Next time, if I see them I will get the rego number.

'CLEARANCE BY CAPPUCCINO'

Written by Alma Ryrie-Jones
for Friends of Public Housing Victoria
in her document 'HOMES UNDER THREAT'



Public housing estates in the inner urban areas of Melbourne were built following slum clearance in areas long considered fit only for the poor.

But times have changed, and the suburbs around them have changed.

These developments are now located in areas of excellent public transport, vibrant cultural and culinary diversity and convenient closeness to workplaces in the city, entertainment, health services and hospitals.

These areas are now highly desirable and sought after by developers, except for the inconvenient truth that many thousands of people already live there as public tenants and would like to stay there.

It seems that governments and developers would like to find ways of dislodging public tenants, by transferring the ownership and management of their tenancies to others, by removing their rights as government tenants, or by outright threats or evictions.

This is property clearance.

PUBLIC TENANTS SPEAK

I get very upset when public tenants are endlessly bashed in the media, put down, stigmatised and vilified.

 

Some of the nicest people I have met in my life have been public tenants.

 

Public tenants are overwhelmingly friendly, down to earth, cheerful, generous and hospitable people.

 

In times of crisis or illness in a neighbour's life, public tenants are very compassionate, helpful and supportive -  with an understanding based on their own life experiences.
 

Our multicultural communities have a lot to offer and teach society because they are based on sound community values.

 

If public housing titles are given away - how long do you think it will be before public tenants are economically squeezed out of their inner city homes situated on prime real estate ??   Pushed out to make way for gentrification.
 

Friends of Public Housing Victoria have gathered the thoughts and opinions of public tenants while visiting public housing estates around Melbourne.
 

 

 

VOICES FROM PUBLIC TENANTS  - PART ONE

'Public housing is one reason why Australia was called the lucky country'

'People end up living in public housing for a variety of reasons. If we tell you our stories, you'll soon find out why we live in public housing'

'I live in a great community. I look after my sick neighbour. Every Saturday we do his shopping for him'

'In a word what they are doing by privatising public housing is RUTHLESS'

'I don't have a computer or even a mobile phone so I appreciate it when I get a visit from Friends of Public Housing and someone asks me for my opinion'

'Public tenants need a voice that says 'Lay off. Stop picking on us'

'Public housing provides security from being homeless. It gives an oasis to people in despair. Many people are living in hardship due to mental illness. Public housing is a form of social security'
 

'Leave the drug addicts alone. They stay on their side of the fence. We stay on ours. We say hello when we see them on the estate. They're not bad people. They still need a roof over their head'

'No-one should be homeless. No-one.'

'I shop at Kmart and op-shops. They are for people on low incomes. Myers and David Jones- you'd have to be a millionaire to shop there'

'Politicians are money-grabbing so-and-sos. These places were designed for people on low incomes'

'I live in public housing with the missus and kids. They don't know what it's like to be poor. They've never had to live like us. Do they know what it's like to worry about how you spend your last $20 or whether there's enough money for food for the fortnight? The rise in energy bills is killing us.'

'A judge from VCAT said to me once 'You've paid your rent for 54 years. This is your home. You've paid it off by now. Don't let anybody put you out of your own home'

'We are very happy living in public housing. I am from Iran and my partner is from Iraq. He is a boat person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We came here to be safe. We always pray for Australia to stay a peaceful country. We budget carefully. If they put up our rent we couldn't afford it. Being a part of this community is very important for my partner. There is always someone he can talk to when he has depression. We love living in Carlton.'

' Just because we live in low class housing, we are still human beings.'

'I used to own my own house. But things went wrong and now I'm living in public housing. It can happen to anyone'

'Destruction of public housing will unleash more social problems than society is able to deal with'

'Public tenants, we stick together. We fight for everyone - all different nationalities and colours and religions.'
 

'We see drug addicts and alcoholics and over time they settle down and come good. That's the importance of a community'

'There are not enough support systems in place to deal with the problems privatising public housing will create'
 

'I am very happy living in public housing. I have no complaints'

'Public tenants fight for the right things - not the wrong things. We fight for the refugees who come here and are our neighbours.'

'I feel very sorry for the children who have come from a war-torn country and now they are happy living here in public housing and the Government is going to take that all away'

'If we get privatised we'll all be worse off '

MAXINE WATERS - GUTSY POLITICIAN

 

MAXINE WATERS - US Congress 
'I've said over and over again, I am not about to be a part of privatising public housing'

Why can't we find a politician like her in this country?

Privatising public housing – will ( and already is .. ) impacting severely on the people at the bottom of the heap who are too poor basically to be 'economically viable' as renters in market-based housing.

Already the shelters and associated services are unable to cope with the desperate need.

Where will these people turn? Where will they go - if the ALP continues down the path of privatising public housing by handing over the titles of Public Housing to Community Housing Organisations and property developers? There is precious little public housing as it is ...

These people will end up on the streets …

What is WRONG with politics in Australia that the privatisation of such a vitally important asset can be happening with virtually no opposition ?  

The following definition by the peak body of Community Housing Organisations was taken from their submission to the Review into the Human Rights Charter. Community Housing Organisations 'are body corporates entering into and enforcing tenancy agreements in a manner consistent with the ordinary powers of legal persons'

Handing over the titles of formerly publicly owned properties is privatisation, and all the smokescreens of not calling it such, is not fooling anyone...
 

There are lots of good people working in this industry who share our concerns about where all this is heading …

Let's take a look at how the forces of neoliberalism and the attempt to take over public housing played out in the US in 2011.

Two politicians, Maxine Waters and Barney Frank, energetically took up the issue on behalf of ordinary Americans.

The following article by George Lakoff for the Huffington Post is informative and excellent.

                                               

Some extracts from the article

HUD = Housing and Urban Development. Shaun Donovan -former secretary of HUD.

'HUD's attempt to privatise all of America's public housing has been put on hold -- for now. You played an important role. Thousands of you signed the petition and spread the word, so that those at the House Financial Services Committee hearing on May 25 understood what the stakes were.'

'Barney Frank and Maxine Waters asked the right questions, and HUD's answers revealed what was hidden in the language of the bill, namely, that all public housing in America would be subject to privatisation.'

More extracts from the article

'Let us praise Barney Frank and Maxine Waters for calling privatisation "privatisation." '

'This gobbledegook language actually says that the Secretary of HUD can consider private (or privatised) property, no longer legally owned by the government, as if it were "owned by a public housing agency". This is linguistic trickery by which private, or privatised, property can be called "public." Given this trickery, Donovan can claim that all privatised property is still "public," because the PETRA bill allows him to call it that and "consider" it as such. It is basically lying with language.'

                                                

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Here in Australia, governments are using an umbrella term 'social housing' to refer to both public housing and community housing - and then transfer one to the other.

Friends of Public Housing Victoria is resisting this, because it is a ruse by which the real name public housing soon gets phased out completely- or expunged. The end result is the privatisation by stealth of public housing.

Do we say social schools, social transport and social hospitals? Of course not. The correct terms are public schools, public transport, public hospitals - public housing.

In the US they did the opposite. As pointed out by George Lakoff, they changed the law so that you could call housing that is privately owned 'public housing'! In this way everyone is kept bamboozled … lol

Here is another quote from Maxine Waters who, when talking to embattled public tenants in the US, subjected to 'one strike evictions', vilification and propaganda, displacement by gentrification, 'exiting public housing' programs ( to where? ) and the like.

'Don't give up. Don't let them break your spirit.'

Maybe one day soon a politician / political party will rise up in our country ( before the next election ? ) and start saying the right thing. 'We must not stand by while public housing is being privatised.'

They would certainly get a lot of support nation-wide from the general public as well as from our public housing communities.

Sources

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/privatization-of-public-h_b_598674.html?ir=Australia


https://myviews.justice.vic.gov.au/2015-review-of-the-charter-of-human-rights
definition of community housing.
= submission no. 45 ( p.5 )

WHAT EXACTLY IS 'AFFORDABLE HOUSING' ?

LESSONS FROM THE UK.

Can you believe that here in Australia we are following Britain down the same path ; implementing a Tory housing policy direction -  ie privatisation - even though it has proven itself to be a social disaster in Britain !?   Please see our post 'Graph of Greed' 

If you study the situation in the UK, you will soon discover MUCH THE SAME SPIN.

                                     
                                            --------------------

Here's the link to an article from the UK GUARDIAN called 
'Affordable Housing does not mean what you think it means.'
 
The UK version of the Guardian is excellent in its coverage of the housing crisis in the UK.

http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2014/feb/03/affordable-housing-meaning-rent-social-housing 

Some excerpts..

'Beware of politicians talking about affordable homes. New 'affordable' housing is not actually that affordable.'

'In a move worthy of George Orwell's Ministry of Truth, affordable rent will be higher than before, set at up to 80% of the local market rent. Across whole swathes of southern England affordable rented properties will simply not be affordable to people on low incomes.'

'Council housing in Westminster, London - under newer 'affordable rents', tenants would need an income of up to £109,000 a year for flats here to be affordable.'

                         ---------------------------------------------------

                     

As in the UK, when we refer to paradigm-changing Australian housing policy directions ( which are not open to debate )  'affordable housing' has already been defined as 'up to 80% of market rents'...

In practice, community housing operators often charge 75% of market rents which means they can claim GST exemptions. They also rely heavily on tax-payer funded Commonwealth Rent Assistance ( CRA ) which goes directly to them, and is used as an ongoing operating subsidy. Otherwise people on low incomes, especially without access to CRA - could not afford to live in 'affordable housing'. 

This also begs the question, ' How affordable is 'affordable housing' to our society, since it relies on so much corporate welfare to sustain it ? '

By contrast the operation of Public Housing requires no Commonwealth Rent Assistance because the rents, set at 25% of income, are already genuinely affordable. We need to hang on to the Public Housing system, and work to improve it - not just 'give it away' as the ALP is considering doing !!

                                                     ----------------------------

So- 'Affordable housing' -when used in a housing context-  is not used in the way that we would use the term. ( as a layperson )

With this spin in mind, we need to discuss public housing and non-government housing rather than using an elastic term like 'affordable housing'. 

                           ------------------------------------------------------- 



Affordable Housing operators have formed international alliances in Canada, UK and the US
http://www.powerhousingaustralia.com.au/home
All prosperous countries with epidemics of homelessness.
How well has 'affordable housing' worked in these countries??

Someone has to ask these hard questions.
But - there is no real media analysis or discussion here in Australia. 
                              
                        ---------------------------------------------------

Another report, also from the UK, is called

'The Affordable Housing Con' by London Tenants Federation. 

It begins with an extract from Lewis Carroll and a quote from a senior lecturer in urban studies.

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

                                 ---------------------------------------------

'Social scientists take considerable care in defining their concepts in order to make them more precise.

By contrast, the term ‘affordable housing’ is used in such a wide variety of ways by those people in positions of power in relation to housing provision, such as politicians, property developers and planners, that it means just what they want it to mean – just like Humpty Dumpty.'

Dr. Paul Watt, Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies, Department of Geography, Environment and Development Studies Birkbeck, University of London

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