[Marie Sillars]

I have been assisting some of our Public Housing Tenants who were handed over to Community Housing Providers 2.5 years ago and have observed that they are being treated as “second class Citizens” by the CHPs. Firstly the change over to Commonwealth Rent Assistance was a total disaster as most of the Tenants found themselves in Rent Arrears almost straight away, Termination Notices were sent out and it was a difficult time for these people (some had NEVER had Rent Arrears or Termination Notices from FACS). All of their maintenance issues were still being done by Broad Spectrum (most of these houses are about 70 years old and very little major maintenance had been done in 20 years). The heavy handed way that the Tenants were being dealt with was a shock, they did have information sessions but were given promises but very little actual information). I attended as many as I could to help these people but I knew that they were confused & angry. I can only speak for my particular CHP but I know many others felt the same way. I am still helping these Tenants and I find that the “Duty of Care” that existed for them with FACS has disappeared and I cannot got my CHP to explain what their Duty of Care is, or in fact, if they actually have a Duty of Care at all…..

The battle continues

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Yes same problem in retirement villages. The phrase ‘independent living’ is thrown about by operators as a defence mechanism together with they have no ‘duty of care’ on that basis.

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