29 March 2011

Housing ACT to start doing it's job

| johnboy
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Joy Burch has put out a media release rejoicing in the following headline:

Housing ACT to use vacant properties to house homeless

Gosh golly, you don’t say? What on earth did they think they were doing before with their billions of dollars in assetts?

The ACT Government has made 12 vacant public housing properties available for crisis accommodation to assist families experiencing homeless, with more properties to follow.

ACT Minister for Housing Joy Burch said today that Housing ACT had widened the criteria for vacant stock eligible for its Transitional Housing Program to include properties that are guaranteed to be vacant for at least 6 weeks, rather than the previous threshold of 3 months.

The program provides for the use of vacant properties to accommodate persons or families experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The 12 properties come on top of 27 properties that Housing ACT was expected to deliver under the Program in 2010-11.

“These revised criteria mean we have an additional 12 properties across the ACT which can now be used to house families and individuals experiencing homelessness through the Transitional Housing Program,” Ms Burch said.

“These additional properties – 6 townhouses in Deakin and 6 stand-alone houses around Canberra – will be let for a minimum of 6 weeks with a view to link the families and individuals to support and stable accommodation.”

Ms Burch said the 12 properties are stock that has been slated for re-development or sale, and outreach support will be provided by specialist homelessness services in the community.

Not that the 12 properties will go far to house all of the Canberrans currently dossing with friends and family, but it’s a start.

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m_ratt said :

Why on earth would Housing ACT have properties vacant for more than six weeks, let alone three months, unless they’re not fit for habitation (in which case they would hardly be suitable crisis accommodation)?

You are talking about a Department that considers ‘priority housing’ to be a six month wait. Nuff said?

In fairness to Housing ACT, there can be valid reasons for gaps in occupation. For example, a family that has been on the waiting list for a long time and is next in line may be renting privately and need to either wait for their lease to expire or give notice. Houses have to be offered to people, who are allowed a period of time to accept, and if they don’t, they have to go through the process again with the next people. Repairs or refurbishment requirements can’t always be quickly met (try getting a tradie to come next week at your house!) and need vacant occupancy to be done. And temporary occupants can sometimes cause further delays, if they have nowhere to go when their time is up, or if they cause damage while they are there.

That is not to excuse bureaucratic bungling or slackness, but managing a large residential property portfolio so as to have 100% occupancy at all times while maintaining reasonable standards and fair allocation systems is just impossible.

m_ratt said :

Why on earth would Housing ACT have properties vacant for more than six weeks, let alone three months, unless they’re not fit for habitation (in which case they would hardly be suitable crisis accommodation)?

Probably because they are usless. My old mum moved out of her 4 bedroom govvie house back in November, but no one has moved into it yet. The place needed a bit of a refurb but was 100% fit for habitation.

I’ll second that, she could not be bothered going out of her way, six weeks and where does she expect to put people after that!!!!!!!! duuurrrrrrrrrr

Why on earth would Housing ACT have properties vacant for more than six weeks

Two words. ‘Joy’ and ‘Burch’.

Or “#ucking” and “useless”

Why on earth would Housing ACT have properties vacant for more than six weeks, let alone three months, unless they’re not fit for habitation (in which case they would hardly be suitable crisis accommodation)?

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