The community facility zone swindle

HiddenDragon said :

The “supportive housing” term is deliberately used to mislead you into thinking it’s aged or disabled tenants. It’s so much more. It involves HousingACT head-leasing their properties to NGOs that then use that housing block for a service they provide to clients. So in some cases, they are NGO-run domestic violence refuges (great), in others they are NGO-run homes with co-housing with carers able to live with physically disabled clients (also great).

But in others, the term “disability” is abused. For example, recidivist parolees with drug addiction and no impulse control are classified as having a “psycho-social disability” (ie, the drug addiction, and their alleged personality disorder that makes them prone to violence). This has been the experience of Oaks Estate since December 2009, when a “rehabilitation/reintegration program for institutionalised men” began through head-leasing up to 46 flats to one particular NGO. Crime doubled immediately (ACT Police stats are my source), policing actually dropped 92%, IV drug needles flourished in all streets and parks, and then, in all of that, Rattenbury as Corrections Minister and then-Transport Minister, refused an ACTION bus to assist in transport to health/parole/employment appointments/services.

This parolee point really matters because AMC has been 25% over capacity since the day it opened, AMC has the highest rate of recidivism in the nation, the ACT Police have the lowest crime solving (and arrest) rate in the nation, the Auditor General shredded the operation of the jail, drugs and violence are rife inside, and now, under the NDIS model, NGOs have zero funding for rehabilitation programs for “psychosocial disabilities” because the funding has been personalised to each recipient. That’s leaving aside the fact that 75% of psycho-socially disabled people will not qualify for the NDIS, and that the ACT is now outsourcing detention to the criminals themselves, but not enforcing drug testing or GPS tracking.

So suburbs are now going to begin experiencing jumps in crime that were entirely avoidable, and there will be no arrests or interventions made.

In another context, “aged care” is typically run by extremely profitable charities as a revenue stream. Revenue streams grow, and economies of scale are pursued. So what starts out as an initial 16-dwelling supported residence steadily grows to a 20, 24, 30, 50 dwelling complex. In addition, the nurse ratio is kept very low, and the charity forcibly medicates vulnerable people with anti-psychotics so they remain in their beds drooling, and they can keep their staffing costs down. That’s not a generalisation, that’s industry norm by the larger players.

Given the passionate, and frequently proclaimed, commitment to human rights in the ACT, perhaps some of the extra revenue which will be raised by the just-legislated increases to annual rates for apartments, townhouses, dual-occupancies etc. could be dedicated to dealing with this disgrace – otherwise, Four Corners might follow-up the Northern Territory juvenile detention expose with an Australian Capital Territory expose.

That Four Corners NT “expose” was largely old and Fake news driven by politics.

So suburbs are now going to begin experiencing jumps in crime that were entirely avoidable, and there will be no arrests or interventions made.

Property damage and motor vehicle theft seems to have skyrocketed recently across Canberra, with the first quarter of this year yielding much higher numbers than at any time in the last four years. Source – ACT Policing crime statistics.
However, burglary and theft don’t seem to have increased in any particular area. I am guessing the recidivist’s, even if relocated to outer suburbs, would probably target their former haunts due to their “connections” still being located there and the familiarity of the surroundings. North Canberra and Belconnen still have the highest rates compared to the rest of the A.C.T. with Tuggeranong closely following. Unfortunately I can’t find a map or any stats to relate these figures to public housing locations so we can only make a best guess as to the link between the two.

The “supportive housing” term is deliberately used to mislead you into thinking it’s aged or disabled tenants. It’s so much more. It involves HousingACT head-leasing their properties to NGOs that then use that housing block for a service they provide to clients. So in some cases, they are NGO-run domestic violence refuges (great), in others they are NGO-run homes with co-housing with carers able to live with physically disabled clients (also great).

But in others, the term “disability” is abused. For example, recidivist parolees with drug addiction and no impulse control are classified as having a “psycho-social disability” (ie, the drug addiction, and their alleged personality disorder that makes them prone to violence). This has been the experience of Oaks Estate since December 2009, when a “rehabilitation/reintegration program for institutionalised men” began through head-leasing up to 46 flats to one particular NGO. Crime doubled immediately (ACT Police stats are my source), policing actually dropped 92%, IV drug needles flourished in all streets and parks, and then, in all of that, Rattenbury as Corrections Minister and then-Transport Minister, refused an ACTION bus to assist in transport to health/parole/employment appointments/services.

This parolee point really matters because AMC has been 25% over capacity since the day it opened, AMC has the highest rate of recidivism in the nation, the ACT Police have the lowest crime solving (and arrest) rate in the nation, the Auditor General shredded the operation of the jail, drugs and violence are rife inside, and now, under the NDIS model, NGOs have zero funding for rehabilitation programs for “psychosocial disabilities” because the funding has been personalised to each recipient. That’s leaving aside the fact that 75% of psycho-socially disabled people will not qualify for the NDIS, and that the ACT is now outsourcing detention to the criminals themselves, but not enforcing drug testing or GPS tracking.

So suburbs are now going to begin experiencing jumps in crime that were entirely avoidable, and there will be no arrests or interventions made.

In another context, “aged care” is typically run by extremely profitable charities as a revenue stream. Revenue streams grow, and economies of scale are pursued. So what starts out as an initial 16-dwelling supported residence steadily grows to a 20, 24, 30, 50 dwelling complex. In addition, the nurse ratio is kept very low, and the charity forcibly medicates vulnerable people with anti-psychotics so they remain in their beds drooling, and they can keep their staffing costs down. That’s not a generalisation, that’s industry norm by the larger players.

Given the passionate, and frequently proclaimed, commitment to human rights in the ACT, perhaps some of the extra revenue which will be raised by the just-legislated increases to annual rates for apartments, townhouses, dual-occupancies etc. could be dedicated to dealing with this disgrace – otherwise, Four Corners might follow-up the Northern Territory juvenile detention expose with an Australian Capital Territory expose.

The “supportive housing” term is deliberately used to mislead you into thinking it’s aged or disabled tenants. It’s so much more. It involves HousingACT head-leasing their properties to NGOs that then use that housing block for a service they provide to clients. So in some cases, they are NGO-run domestic violence refuges (great), in others they are NGO-run homes with co-housing with carers able to live with physically disabled clients (also great).

But in others, the term “disability” is abused. For example, recidivist parolees with drug addiction and no impulse control are classified as having a “psycho-social disability” (ie, the drug addiction, and their alleged personality disorder that makes them prone to violence). This has been the experience of Oaks Estate since December 2009, when a “rehabilitation/reintegration program for institutionalised men” began through head-leasing up to 46 flats to one particular NGO. Crime doubled immediately (ACT Police stats are my source), policing actually dropped 92%, IV drug needles flourished in all streets and parks, and then, in all of that, Rattenbury as Corrections Minister and then-Transport Minister, refused an ACTION bus to assist in transport to health/parole/employment appointments/services.

This parolee point really matters because AMC has been 25% over capacity since the day it opened, AMC has the highest rate of recidivism in the nation, the ACT Police have the lowest crime solving (and arrest) rate in the nation, the Auditor General shredded the operation of the jail, drugs and violence are rife inside, and now, under the NDIS model, NGOs have zero funding for rehabilitation programs for “psychosocial disabilities” because the funding has been personalised to each recipient. That’s leaving aside the fact that 75% of psycho-socially disabled people will not qualify for the NDIS, and that the ACT is now outsourcing detention to the criminals themselves, but not enforcing drug testing or GPS tracking.

So suburbs are now going to begin experiencing jumps in crime that were entirely avoidable, and there will be no arrests or interventions made.

In another context, “aged care” is typically run by extremely profitable charities as a revenue stream. Revenue streams grow, and economies of scale are pursued. So what starts out as an initial 16-dwelling supported residence steadily grows to a 20, 24, 30, 50 dwelling complex. In addition, the nurse ratio is kept very low, and the charity forcibly medicates vulnerable people with anti-psychotics so they remain in their beds drooling, and they can keep their staffing costs down. That’s not a generalisation, that’s industry norm by the larger players.

Disturbing. I believe it too.

Rover said :

bj_ACT said :

Rover said :

Andrew Barr and government officials are being allowed to get away with the spurious and offensive claim that anyone who questions their plans is vilifying public housing tenants.

In Narrabundah, 23 per cent of dwellings are public housing. They are mainly freestanding houses or duplexes, or apartments within majority privately-owned complexes. The only reason I know which apartments in my complex are public housing is from seeing the ownership lists during a brief stint on the body corporate.

This is salt-and-peppering at its best.

However, the Government now plans to use land on Jerrabomberra Ave – located between the vets and the motel, separated by a licensed club – for two complexes of up to 30 two-bedroom townhouses exclusively for public housing.

This is not salt-and-peppering. This is rebuilding problems, in a suburb that for historical reasons already has a disproportionate amount of public housing.

When Housing ACT officials fronted an Inner South Community Council meeting a couple of months ago, they too played the “you are vilifying all public tenants” card. They completely ignored that the angriest voices in the room came from public housing tenants who pointed out that Housing ACT was not able to properly maintain its existing properties, nor protect its good tenants from the minority of bad tenants.

Andrew Barr wants to talk up his credentials as a public housing tenant as a child. I’ll be more impressed if he proposes a 30-unit public housing development near his adult home.

Where is your “In Narrabundah, 23 per cent of dwellings are public housing” sourced from? I think these kind of numbers were once claimed by Narrabundah Community Council, but it would be good to know if there are some other sources to back it up.

According to the last ABS CENSUS only 6% of residents in Narrabundah lived in Public housing which is in the same ballpark as Kambah, Charnwood, Florey & Rivett. But maybe the CENSUS data is skewed somehow?

Hi BJ, I should have been clearer – the 23 per cent figure is in relation to Old Narrabundah – the area bordered by Canberra Av, McMillan Cres, Sturt/Jerrabomberra Av and Hindmarsh Av.

We were told by the Old Narrabundah Community Council at the meeting auspiced by the Inner South Community Council earlier this year that Yvette Berry had supplied the 23 per cent figure.

The ACT Government representatives there did not dispute it, so I took it as accurate.

Just to be clear, I think the way public housing has been handled within Old Narrabundah is the example of how it should be done elsewhere. A mix of freestanding and duplex houses, and handfuls of Government-owned apartments within larger private complexes, in streets close to the shops, community centre, and public transport.

It is what has made Narrabundah the wonderful place it is today. It’s a community that I am very proud to have been a member of for more than 20 years, both as a tenant and luckily now as an owner.

The latest proposals, to build 30-unit complexes of solely public tenancies, fly in the face of the Government’s salt-and-peppering rhetoric. My concern is not that they will raise the proportion of public housing in Old Narrabundah, but that they will lead to mini Stuart Flats or Gowrie Courts, where one bad tenant can make everyone else’s life a misery, and Housing ACT is powerless to act.

While I was watching a soccer match at Narrabundah a few weekends ago I also watched a couple of dudes spray painting the back of a building at Gowrie Court. Some would say it was art because it was tagged – I say vandalism.

Have they caught the serial tyre slasher in Narrabundah?

When I lived in neighbouring Griffith 20 years ago there was regular house-breaking and car vandalism everywhere.

Glad to hear you are enjoying living there today.

Rover said :

bj_ACT said :

Rover said :

Andrew Barr and government officials are being allowed to get away with the spurious and offensive claim that anyone who questions their plans is vilifying public housing tenants.

In Narrabundah, 23 per cent of dwellings are public housing. They are mainly freestanding houses or duplexes, or apartments within majority privately-owned complexes. The only reason I know which apartments in my complex are public housing is from seeing the ownership lists during a brief stint on the body corporate.

This is salt-and-peppering at its best.

However, the Government now plans to use land on Jerrabomberra Ave – located between the vets and the motel, separated by a licensed club – for two complexes of up to 30 two-bedroom townhouses exclusively for public housing.

This is not salt-and-peppering. This is rebuilding problems, in a suburb that for historical reasons already has a disproportionate amount of public housing.

When Housing ACT officials fronted an Inner South Community Council meeting a couple of months ago, they too played the “you are vilifying all public tenants” card. They completely ignored that the angriest voices in the room came from public housing tenants who pointed out that Housing ACT was not able to properly maintain its existing properties, nor protect its good tenants from the minority of bad tenants.

Andrew Barr wants to talk up his credentials as a public housing tenant as a child. I’ll be more impressed if he proposes a 30-unit public housing development near his adult home.

Where is your “In Narrabundah, 23 per cent of dwellings are public housing” sourced from? I think these kind of numbers were once claimed by Narrabundah Community Council, but it would be good to know if there are some other sources to back it up.

According to the last ABS CENSUS only 6% of residents in Narrabundah lived in Public housing which is in the same ballpark as Kambah, Charnwood, Florey & Rivett. But maybe the CENSUS data is skewed somehow?

Hi BJ, I should have been clearer – the 23 per cent figure is in relation to Old Narrabundah – the area bordered by Canberra Av, McMillan Cres, Sturt/Jerrabomberra Av and Hindmarsh Av.

We were told by the Old Narrabundah Community Council at the meeting auspiced by the Inner South Community Council earlier this year that Yvette Berry had supplied the 23 per cent figure.

The ACT Government representatives there did not dispute it, so I took it as accurate.

Just to be clear, I think the way public housing has been handled within Old Narrabundah is the example of how it should be done elsewhere. A mix of freestanding and duplex houses, and handfuls of Government-owned apartments within larger private complexes, in streets close to the shops, community centre, and public transport.

It is what has made Narrabundah the wonderful place it is today. It’s a community that I am very proud to have been a member of for more than 20 years, both as a tenant and luckily now as an owner.

The latest proposals, to build 30-unit complexes of solely public tenancies, fly in the face of the Government’s salt-and-peppering rhetoric. My concern is not that they will raise the proportion of public housing in Old Narrabundah, but that they will lead to mini Stuart Flats or Gowrie Courts, where one bad tenant can make everyone else’s life a misery, and Housing ACT is powerless to act.

Cheers Rover for the Clarification. I agree that Narrabundah has had a more successful approach than many other areas and I hope the ACT Government continues successful integrations like this.

The issues I have seen first hand in Tuggeranong follows the shipping of Public housing tenants to suburbs without adequate infrastructure and suburbs with little community facilities and very limited nearby entertainment options. Usually a recipe for disaster.

I hope the ACT Government includes funds in the Budget to improve community facilities in the outer suburbs that they send the Public housing tenants to. If someone has been used to walking across from Bega Flats to the City Centre, Glebe Park, YMCA, Skate Parks, Library, Entertainment options and community support centres etc, they will pretty quickly get bored at Kambah Village or the Monash hill parkland.

My guess is the ACT Government didn’t include funds to cover facilities and nearby community support for Public Housing tenants moved out to the burbs, just the money to build a replacement property. Hardly a real solution to support some of our most struggling residents. You get the feeling that it is a policy to get poorer people away from inner city areas that can be sold off for a profit.

bj_ACT said :

Rover said :

Andrew Barr and government officials are being allowed to get away with the spurious and offensive claim that anyone who questions their plans is vilifying public housing tenants.

In Narrabundah, 23 per cent of dwellings are public housing. They are mainly freestanding houses or duplexes, or apartments within majority privately-owned complexes. The only reason I know which apartments in my complex are public housing is from seeing the ownership lists during a brief stint on the body corporate.

This is salt-and-peppering at its best.

However, the Government now plans to use land on Jerrabomberra Ave – located between the vets and the motel, separated by a licensed club – for two complexes of up to 30 two-bedroom townhouses exclusively for public housing.

This is not salt-and-peppering. This is rebuilding problems, in a suburb that for historical reasons already has a disproportionate amount of public housing.

When Housing ACT officials fronted an Inner South Community Council meeting a couple of months ago, they too played the “you are vilifying all public tenants” card. They completely ignored that the angriest voices in the room came from public housing tenants who pointed out that Housing ACT was not able to properly maintain its existing properties, nor protect its good tenants from the minority of bad tenants.

Andrew Barr wants to talk up his credentials as a public housing tenant as a child. I’ll be more impressed if he proposes a 30-unit public housing development near his adult home.

Where is your “In Narrabundah, 23 per cent of dwellings are public housing” sourced from? I think these kind of numbers were once claimed by Narrabundah Community Council, but it would be good to know if there are some other sources to back it up.

According to the last ABS CENSUS only 6% of residents in Narrabundah lived in Public housing which is in the same ballpark as Kambah, Charnwood, Florey & Rivett. But maybe the CENSUS data is skewed somehow?

Hi BJ, I should have been clearer – the 23 per cent figure is in relation to Old Narrabundah – the area bordered by Canberra Av, McMillan Cres, Sturt/Jerrabomberra Av and Hindmarsh Av.

We were told by the Old Narrabundah Community Council at the meeting auspiced by the Inner South Community Council earlier this year that Yvette Berry had supplied the 23 per cent figure.

The ACT Government representatives there did not dispute it, so I took it as accurate.

Just to be clear, I think the way public housing has been handled within Old Narrabundah is the example of how it should be done elsewhere. A mix of freestanding and duplex houses, and handfuls of Government-owned apartments within larger private complexes, in streets close to the shops, community centre, and public transport.

It is what has made Narrabundah the wonderful place it is today. It’s a community that I am very proud to have been a member of for more than 20 years, both as a tenant and luckily now as an owner.

The latest proposals, to build 30-unit complexes of solely public tenancies, fly in the face of the Government’s salt-and-peppering rhetoric. My concern is not that they will raise the proportion of public housing in Old Narrabundah, but that they will lead to mini Stuart Flats or Gowrie Courts, where one bad tenant can make everyone else’s life a misery, and Housing ACT is powerless to act.

HiddenDragon said :

Just to be clear, what colour(s) are the Community Facility Zones in the screen shot from the ACT Territory Plan included in this article?

Yellow.

Thats the Labor party for you . Thieves of public property and oxygen .

It should be “Us” telling the gov what to do and what we want from them . Not the Labor/Greens dictating to us what they are doing.and what we will have to do for them .

Sooner Canberran’s realise this the better but it seems most here will never learn the lesson.

Just to be clear, what colour(s) are the Community Facility Zones in the screen shot from the ACT Territory Plan included in this article?