Public housing crackdown on unauthorised tenants

The State Government has been urging tenants to ‘dob in’ unauthorised additional public housing occupants to help ensure appropriate payment of due rent.

Housing NSW has introduced a two-month amnesty to encourage tenants to declare any unauthorised tenants without fear of eviction or the prospect of paying back rent.

A Housing NSW spokesperson said any “unauthorised occupants of public housing tenants who fail to pay their fair share of rents are costing the taxpayer millions of dollars per year”.

Housing NSW based their hardline stance on the belief that “this money could be used to provide more housing services to those in need and to reduce waiting lists”.

However concerns remain on the manner in which public housing occupants will be ‘dobbing in’ each other.

City of Sydney Greens Councillor, Irene Doutney claimed “people make terrible assumptions about their neighbours and spread them”.

“If you don’t like them it becomes easy to complain about them when they don’t know the truth,” she said.

As public housing tenant herself, Ms Doutney has also criticised Housing NSW as being “notoriously slack at responding to calls from residents on matters like maintenance and anti-social behaviour”.

She is concerned “the new line will divert resources from this important and already overstretched service”.

Executive Officer of The Factory Community Centre in Woolloomooloo, Michael Shreenan said the level of unauthorised tenants is “no surprise given the size of the waiting list, the size of homelessness and the cutting of support services, and lack of housing stock to meet demand”.

But Mr Shreenan said the move would help induce a culture of fear.

“[By] encouraging people to report their neighbours it will probably induce more fear, rather than trust and undermine what they are trying to rightly achieve,” he said.

The amnesty has run from January 21 and will continue until March 17 2013.

Housing NSW stated “under the terms of the amnesty … it gives those who have engaged in fraudulent activity in the past the chance to do the right thing”.

The Tenants’ Union of NSW blog, The Brown Couch reported: “The amnesty may still be a very good deal … and you save you a lot of trouble from Housing NSW.”

Housing NSW claimed over 200 tenants had declared unauthorised tenants in the first three days of the amnesty.

Any allegations will be thoroughly investigated by Housing NSW and tenants will be given the opportunity to respond to any allegations. If a tenant if found to have additional occupants, they forfeit the protection provided by the amnesty and will be charged back rent.

A tenant may appeal any decision to the Independent Housing Appeals Committee.

Tenants can submit declarations at www.housing.nsw.gov.au or make an anonymous report on 1300 468 746.