Your taxes: Luxury public housing for teen mum?

vix # 24

Yep always like to get a bit! lol

Mothy # 55
+ 1
babeeshka # 34
What makes you so special, don’t you think that most people in their lives have gone through similar circumstances? Or had tragedies in their lives. You sound like you are in your early thirties, wait till your older, and you can’t work, or work for long periods, at least you can work, you sound very cynical and bitter, if like you say you went to uni, do you have your own home? Why be jealous of these other people. Who cares!

ummm…why is your neighbour in Housing when she owns an investment property? Surely she should be living in her investment property to free up the Housing property for someone else?

Mothy said :

What you have had happen to you is relevant only to you.

It might be sad, tragic, and hard, but it does not have a bearing on the criteria that Housing use when assessing whether a 19 year old single mum is eligible for placement – There is no “Babeeshka Index” through which Housing make their assessments.

When looking at what others receive, you will always be better served to leave aside your experience, and know that just because you cannot understand or see what befell them to get them where they are, does not mean it is there.

If you’d have done better in the same circumstances – well, good for you.

Take some pride from that, rather than spite.

And walk away.

.

Typical apologist claptrap.
Who is prioritised for housing?
Who jumps the queue?
Who claims benefits having never contributed?
Who has armies of social workers and do-gooders looking after their interests?
Who gets extra?

Housing someone who is a low paid worker, who has contributed to the social fund, who does not want to stay in public accommodation, who may have put off child rearing until they can provide a decent home and life for a CHILD, will always take second place to housing the feckless teenagers who have never worked, have no desire to work, will be happy to live in public accommodation for the rest of their days, has no intention of providing a good prospect for their kids, and those who will blow their benefits on drugs, and will indulge in other petty crime.

If public housing was awarded on merit, rather than on who can rack up the most points, we’d soon see a shift in attitude towards it.

I speak from experience here, long experience.

babeeshka said :

I don’t think it unreasonable to have a sense of entitlement that if you work and contribute to society that you will get some benefit for it.

Let go back to those statistics again;
* 23.9% Education and Training
* 14.5% TAMS
* 25.6% Health & Hospitals

You’ve been educated in schools, and made it to University. If you’ve been working for 20 years, your university education likely had a greater proportion of its funding coming from Government sources than it would were it to have occurred now.

Might I suggest if you feel the need to extract further upon the benefits of society you take a walk in the park? 14.5% of your taxes went to fund them, be sure to extract the benefit from that.

Or if indeed your past and the troubles you experienced are haunting you, as it perhaps you should use some of the health benefit and speak to someone professional about it.

babeeshka said :

Ironically the ones on Austudy were all from wealthy backgrounds and knew how to negotiate the system

This one, Babeeshka, was the best pointer to what’s irking you the most. You did it hard, others have it easier. They did then, and they do now.

I won’t try to contest your past with you, because you’re the best judge of it. The reason you’re finding it difficult to get sympathy for it, despite the increasing detail of it, is that you’re expressing what is your problem – i.e. jealousy – through trying to bring others back to your level. By taking away from, or riling against the provision to, others what you never had for yourself.

You attempt to discredit their right to a second chance. You’ve judged them.

And the Colorful Racing Identity, in asking why you didn’t report crimes to the police/crime stoppers, is simply pointing out how hollow your judgment is – you don’t actually care what they’ve done, you only care that the “reward” that they have received has not been received by you too.

But can I tell you something?

What you have had happen to you is relevant only to you.

It might be sad, tragic, and hard, but it does not have a bearing on the criteria that Housing use when assessing whether a 19 year old single mum is eligible for placement – There is no “Babeeshka Index” through which Housing make their assessments.

When looking at what others receive, you will always be better served to leave aside your experience, and know that just because you cannot understand or see what befell them to get them where they are, does not mean it is there.

If you’d have done better in the same circumstances – well, good for you.

Take some pride from that, rather than spite.

And walk away.

Oh, and one last thing – Heavs @ #37 was just trying to inject some humor. A little laugh once in a while goes a long way.

babeeshka said :

I find I’m being goaded into revealing my life only to be mocked so I won’t be returning to this site. Its a bit pointless. And no, before you rub your hands in glee and sharpen your sarcasm I’m not going off to cry I’m taking my daughter to the park.

Thanks for the supportive comments-those that gave them 🙂 Its good to know you’re out there.

Overcoming true adversity is not something a lot of people will thank you for, because few manage it.

babeeshka said :

I find I’m being goaded into revealing my life only to be mocked so I won’t be returning to this site. Its a bit pointless. And no, before you rub your hands in glee and sharpen your sarcasm I’m not going off to cry I’m taking my daughter to the park.

Thanks for the supportive comments-those that gave them 🙂 Its good to know you’re out there.

Don’t forget to pop in at the cop-shop on the way to the park, you know, to dob in your ‘friend’.

I find I’m being goaded into revealing my life only to be mocked so I won’t be returning to this site. Its a bit pointless. And no, before you rub your hands in glee and sharpen your sarcasm I’m not going off to cry I’m taking my daughter to the park.

Thanks for the supportive comments-those that gave them 🙂 Its good to know you’re out there.

I also want to make it clear that after I greedily stuffed myself with half a bolognaise meal as well as being unable to afford a train and bus ticket I was i also unable to eat for the next couple of days. And while it might be fun to call me a whining “pussy” I think the fact someone can do that after I’ve mentioned sexual, physical and emotional abuse proves my point that the “left” has no genuine compassion only ideology.

@racing identity Why is this so important to you? What point are you trying to make with it? I’m not going to answer questions about serious criminal activity on a public forum. Re the pitbulls- if anyone did dob them in they would put down the puppies.

Re drugs it was a small part of my response to being asked to provide further details of the situation or risk sounding like I was projecting “my own sense of entitlement” onto her. She feels entitled to get moved to better housing by complaining about the neighbourhood where it was (is) occuring while directly benefiting from the problem. Full stop. Another young person I know in housing complained that there were nails in her back yard and housing hadn’t come to clean them up so her kids couldn’t play. I’m surprised it didn’t hit the papers. She is a gorgeous person but it had genuinely not occured to her to pick them up herself. I also know an older hard working single mum in housing with a do it yourself mentality- she lives next door to me and I admire her. Contrary to your expectations she owns an investment property.

Are you genuinely interested or do you just want to try and be clever and mock me because you’ve decided I’m a big fat meany? Why do I feel like I’m being led down various side-streets by a pack of wolves eager that I slip so they can misconstrue my words, take them out of context, divert attention from what I’m saying, focus on irrelevancies and devour me? That was why I didn’t answer your question. Not the fact that I didn’t have a computer at uni. I don’t even know what you want to achieve here with this question.

beejay76 said :

breda said :

beejay said:

They aren’t going to stop taxing him just ‘coz there are no tenants.
——————————————————————
Yes, they will. If he is not earning any money from the property, he won’t be taxed.

Whatever the reason was for your eviction, that wasn’t it, though, unless you were being charged $50 a week rent. More likely he wants to redevelop the site, and didn’t want to spend money on maintenance in the meantime. Or, he was re-arranging his tax deductions. The reason he gave you just doesn’t make sense. No way could a market rent be more than the land tax.

No, they won’t! He said “excessive land tax”. Land tax is independent of any tenants. It is based on a) not a primary residence and b) land value. End of.

He probably decided to sell the property and move the proceeds to a higher yeilding asset.

Oh, and FWIW, negative gearing is nowhere near as effective as it was 20 years ago, due to changes in tax rates and rules on what can be claimed. Many property investors (including me) don’t select properties based on negative gearing effect.

babeeshka said :

I just want to make it perfectly clear I couldn’t afford a computer.

Is that why you were unable to respond to my question about what the police said when you reported all of that illegal activity?

I just want to make it perfectly clear I couldn’t afford a computer.

” Pussy. We didn’t have trains and busses in our day” Oh and farnarker it wasn’t that long ago. I couldn’t afford a computer. 😛

farnarkler said :

Tell me babeeshka, would you want to swap your life and your cupboard sized bathroom with a housing ACT tenant?

Didn’t think so.

No, probably not Babeeska would probably have too much dignity and want to work to earn enough to get out of that situation, as would most people with some self respect. What a stupid pointless thing to ask!

babeeshka said :

Thanks for ridiculing me for being brave enough to talk about my life in a seemingly vain effort to challenge the indoctrination that we seem to have in society that anyone who makes a go of their lives must be punished and anyone who puts out their hand must ergo be disadvantaged

Hear hear! Bravo, well said!!!

breda said :

beejay said:

They aren’t going to stop taxing him just ‘coz there are no tenants.
——————————————————————
Yes, they will. If he is not earning any money from the property, he won’t be taxed.

Whatever the reason was for your eviction, that wasn’t it, though, unless you were being charged $50 a week rent. More likely he wants to redevelop the site, and didn’t want to spend money on maintenance in the meantime. Or, he was re-arranging his tax deductions. The reason he gave you just doesn’t make sense. No way could a market rent be more than the land tax.

No, they won’t! He said “excessive land tax”. Land tax is independent of any tenants. It is based on a) not a primary residence and b) land value. End of.

babeeshka said :

colourful sydney racing identity said :

Erg0 said :

I have to ask… why would you describe this deadbeat as your “friend”?

And why you would take her daughter out?

Let’s just say I’m a genuienly nice person worried about the fact that no matter how much $ is thrown at the mother her kids are still disdvantaged because you can’t do anything about the moral and intellectual poverty of the mother except maybe stop indulging her as a poor unfortunate.

Yes, you strike me as a genuinely nice person. In fact, when I read your posts it was my immediate thought.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

Erg0 said :

I have to ask… why would you describe this deadbeat as your “friend”?

And why you would take her daughter out?

Let’s just say I’m a genuienly nice person worried about the fact that no matter how much $ is thrown at the mother her kids are still disdvantaged because you can’t do anything about the moral and intellectual poverty of the mother except maybe stop indulging her as a poor unfortunate.

Heavs said :

babeeshka said :

farnarkler said :

Tell me babeeshka, would you want to swap your life and your cupboard sized bathroom with a housing ACT tenant?

Didn’t think so.

I remember when I was out of home living on $90 a week as a receptionist and putting myself through university I was told how “lucky” I was to go to university and how university students should pay more tax because they were all from “middle class backgrounds.” Ironically the ones on Austudy were all from wealthy bakgrounds and knew how to negotiate the system, At one stage I was living in a one bedroom unit with four people. I remember going out to dinner with my boyfriend for his friends birthday and ordering the spagetti bolegnaise to share with my boyfriend because it was the cheapest thing on the menu. When the decision was made to split the bill I cried for three days. This was easy because I was stuck at home unable to afford the bus and train fare to get in to university. Btw I achieved an honours degree in psychology including writing a 50,000 word thesis without even owning a computer.

Pussy. We didn’t have trains and busses in my day. I had to get to school on my own steam. The closest one was 14miles away. I had to get there and back every day. And I had no legs. I still remember crying for a week when, one day crawling the 14 mile into school on my knuckles, I got caught in a storm and turned up 30 minutes late and soaking wet. The teacher humiliated me in front of everyone so I wet (and ruined) my pants (i’d picked the cotton for them myself – particularly hard when you have no legs) and for that he belted me across the knuckles. Lucky for me all those years of crawling around to get to school had built my knuckles up and it didn’t hurt as much as it would have. I didn’t get no public transport so I think you should be thankful you got to catch a bus when you weren’t being profligate with your spaghetti dinners.

Thanks for ridiculing me for being brave enough to talk about my live in a seemingly vain effort to challenge the indoctrination that we seem to have in society that anyone who makes a go of their lives must be punished and anyone who puts out their hand must ergo be disadvantged

Erg0 said :

I have to ask… why would you describe this deadbeat as your “friend”?

And why you would take her daughter out?

Erg0 said :

I have to ask… why would you describe this deadbeat as your “friend”?

That’s why I used the inverted commas, it was meant ironically and I was trying to stay away from perjorative terms. I didn’t regard her as my friend but I did offer her friendship until one day she turned around and threw it back in my face becaue despite everything she is angry at her life and envious of mine

I have to ask… why would you describe this deadbeat as your “friend”?

farnarkler said :

Tell me babeeshka, would you want to swap your life and your cupboard sized bathroom with a housing ACT tenant?

Didn’t think so.

Besides Farnarkler if you’d read my follow-up post you’d realise that I’m selling my home.

babeeshka said :

I don’t think it unreasonable to have a sense of entitlement that if you work and contribute to society that you will get some benefit for it. So yes, bd84 I would expect that after twenty years of working I do not just get the old housing that Housing discards that costs a lot to maintain and refurbish to pay increasingly higher taxes to put someone who has never worked and never intends to work into new public housing, which yes, she has been “given” effectively for life because her pension is also part of what the taxpayer picks up the bill for.

What is the incentive for young people to work and contribute to society when they are doing without, trying to sacrifice for the future when they see that all they have to do is fall pregnant while still a child and they will be given brand new luxury housing for life? For them, it would be like winning the lottery. If I have to spell the social implications out for you then we are in real trouble.

@Monty OK -what resale value? She will be in there her entire life. It is luxury housing. My friend herself admits to laughing when she got the keys and the first thing her partner did is take a dump in it. But it wasn’t long before she was asking for more. Her general attitude towards Housing is, “how DARE they treat us like this?” Sense of entitlement: OK- I would have thought plans for a large family completely on the public purse would have been enough but I’ll spell it out for you.
1. Entitlement to be supported by society because, “I am breeding the workers of the future.”
2. Entitlement to get moved to better housing because the environment was bad for her kids despite the fact her own partner is selling drugs and helping make it a crappy environment
3. Entitlement to write letters of complaint and threaten to sue Housing for not providing a stair rail on stairs enclosed down the side in said luxury housing
4. Entitlement that housing should fit the bill for a new fence to enclose her pitbulls so she can breed them unliscened. I notice those in private housing in the same group of houses are making do with what they have got
5. Entitlement to blame the school for punishing her child for punching another child, “because what was he meant to do? The kid called him a girl.”
6. Entitlement to threaten to sue school for her son still being violent despite a dedicated teachers aide being assigned to him because, “what the hell were they doing? They are f*** hopless. They’re being payed to look after my son. I’m being discriminated against cos I’m a young mum.”
7. Entitlement to drive drunk with her kids in the car.
8. Entitlement to sit around drinking and taking drugs playing “which genocide?” with her boyfriend. for those of you who don’t know it, it goes like this, “All those f*** people in china. what do we need those for? They should die” (As a result I cannot take her child into an Asian grocery store without his starting to abuse the stor owners)
9. Entitlement for her to use her pension card like a visa. For example, eight free visits to the chiropractor (well free for her, not society). Free vet bills cos the vet feels sorry for her.
10. Entitlement to tell me and a friend who is working two jobs that we better not ever complain about anything in our lives to her because we are lucky

Do I need to go on?

Well she must have come from a difficult background I hear you say? No. Middle class, white, no abuse.

Would you care to guess my background?

On the other side of the ledger I am being forced to sell my home because I can’t afford the taxes anymore. I will miss my beautiful home and my beautiful community and I will grieve for the fact that I have to rip my son from his school where he has made good friends. I don’t think its sensible for the ACT govt to tax people to the point that they are destroying their own revenue base.

I do not have a sense of entitlement. I just want a fair go.

I spent several months last year trying to “shower” under a garden tap pregnant in winter because we were trying to renovate our 1960 cupboard sized bathroom by ourselves while holding down to full-time jobs and looking after a child without any social support. If any bleeding hearts out there in my community who are so fond of the chronically unemployed and single mothers whose condoms keep breaking have genuine compassion and would like to help me out getting my house ready to sell – I would love to hear from you. I have been hit with life circumstance after life circumstance (you know the kind you can’t actually control) and quite frankly I’m not coping all that well

Right. So what did the police say when you contacted them about the illegal breeding of dogs and selling of drugs.

babeeshka said :

farnarkler said :

Tell me babeeshka, would you want to swap your life and your cupboard sized bathroom with a housing ACT tenant?

Didn’t think so.

I remember when I was out of home living on $90 a week as a receptionist and putting myself through university I was told how “lucky” I was to go to university and how university students should pay more tax because they were all from “middle class backgrounds.” Ironically the ones on Austudy were all from wealthy bakgrounds and knew how to negotiate the system, At one stage I was living in a one bedroom unit with four people. I remember going out to dinner with my boyfriend for his friends birthday and ordering the spagetti bolegnaise to share with my boyfriend because it was the cheapest thing on the menu. When the decision was made to split the bill I cried for three days. This was easy because I was stuck at home unable to afford the bus and train fare to get in to university. Btw I achieved an honours degree in psychology including writing a 50,000 word thesis without even owning a computer.

Pussy. We didn’t have trains and busses in my day. I had to get to school on my own steam. The closest one was 14miles away. I had to get there and back every day. And I had no legs. I still remember crying for a week when, one day crawling the 14 mile into school on my knuckles, I got caught in a storm and turned up 30 minutes late and soaking wet. The teacher humiliated me in front of everyone so I wet (and ruined) my pants (i’d picked the cotton for them myself – particularly hard when you have no legs) and for that he belted me across the knuckles. Lucky for me all those years of crawling around to get to school had built my knuckles up and it didn’t hurt as much as it would have. I didn’t get no public transport so I think you should be thankful you got to catch a bus when you weren’t being profligate with your spaghetti dinners.

beejay76 said :

satansman said :

I was given notice to move out of my shared home in O’Connor last year because the landlord said he couldn’t afford to have anyone live there anylonger. It was a old property on a big piece of land and therefore attrracted excessive land tax.

“Excessive?” So this bloke who owns at least two properties and is very likely taking advantage of massive tax concessions through negative gearing, is moaning over having to pay some tax. Call the waaaaaambulance. If he didn’t want to pay tax he should have just sold it. No need to kick the tenants out! They aren’t going to stop taxing him just ‘coz there are no tenants.

I don’t have a lot of sympathy for landlords who moan about paying their taxes, as you can probably tell.

Sounds like another case of envy politics to me.

farnarkler said :

Tell me babeeshka, would you want to swap your life and your cupboard sized bathroom with a housing ACT tenant?

Didn’t think so.

Hey are you going to wait for me to answer? I think some people have heir brains so wrapped in the”wooly cotton balls of infancy” that they are incapable of independent thought and believe that anyone who has achieved anything in life must be somehow “privledged,” and anyone who hasn’t has been hard done by.

I might swap my background for hers (she comes from a middle class background no abuse) but I’d lose all the lessons I’d learnt overcoming being brought up by a single mum after my father dropped dead when she was pregnant with me and overcoming sexual, physical and emotional abuse throughout my childhood to achieve something with my life.

I remember when I was out of home living on $90 a week as a receptionist and putting myself through university I was told how “lucky” I was to go to university and how university students should pay more tax because they were all from “middle class backgrounds.” Ironically the ones on Austudy were all from wealthy bakgrounds and knew how to negotiate the system, At one stage I was living in a one bedroom unit with four people. I remember going out to dinner with my boyfriend for his friends birthday and ordering the spagetti bolegnaise to share with my boyfriend because it was the cheapest thing on the menu. When the decision was made to split the bill I cried for three days. This was easy because I was stuck at home unable to afford the bus and train fare to get in to university. Btw I achieved an honours degree in psychology including writing a 50,000 word thesis without even owning a computer.

So yes, if I’d been given a 3 bedroom home at 19 I would have been pretty happy.

So Farnarkler I’d put up more about by current circumstances but I don’t trust the audience not to further ridicule me and make assumptions about my life. Certainly I don’t think getting told to “sick it up” would be at all helpful because I’ve been sucking it up all my life. My capacity to “suck it up” however has well and gruly been reached. Sorry -no more capacity.

Certainly when i was sitting at work crying with the pain of endometriosis but still working i might have been very tempted to turn back time and swap my life for a pension.

So tell me Farnarkler what do you think it is about the decision to put someone in luxury housing for life because they have one accident or life hiccup and then decide to live the rest of their lives contributing nothing to society that is a smart decision? (remember: my mother was a working single mum-go mum).

beejay said:

They aren’t going to stop taxing him just ‘coz there are no tenants.
——————————————————————
Yes, they will. If he is not earning any money from the property, he won’t be taxed.

Whatever the reason was for your eviction, that wasn’t it, though, unless you were being charged $50 a week rent. More likely he wants to redevelop the site, and didn’t want to spend money on maintenance in the meantime. Or, he was re-arranging his tax deductions. The reason he gave you just doesn’t make sense. No way could a market rent be more than the land tax.

beejay76 said :

So this bloke who owns at least two properties and is very likely taking advantage of massive tax concessions through negative gearing, is moaning over having to pay some tax. Call the waaaaaambulance. If he didn’t want to pay tax he should have just sold it. No need to kick the tenants out! They aren’t going to stop taxing him just ‘coz there are no tenants.

Contrary to popular opinion, your don’t actually make money from negative gearing, you just get to spend less of it. Most landlords would be lucky to break even on the rental income from tenants and are dependent on capital gains to make a return on their investment. In many cases it is more profitable to leave the house empty than to rent it out. There was a study in Melbourne late last year that identified that up to 20% of properties in decent suburbs were vacant (based on the water bills showing no water usage) even though the rental vacancy rate was less than 2%.

Beejay, if he was ‘negative gearing’ the property then having no tennant may have been some advantage, but its unlikely to be sustainable. Then again moving to what is essentially a ‘land banking’ situation can work for some investors. Especially if you have a property with heritage issues that you need to strategically let run down to justify a knock down for safety reasons to free it up for units or other more rewarding development.

satansman said :

I was given notice to move out of my shared home in O’Connor last year because the landlord said he couldn’t afford to have anyone live there anylonger. It was a old property on a big piece of land and therefore attrracted excessive land tax.

“Excessive?” So this bloke who owns at least two properties and is very likely taking advantage of massive tax concessions through negative gearing, is moaning over having to pay some tax. Call the waaaaaambulance. If he didn’t want to pay tax he should have just sold it. No need to kick the tenants out! They aren’t going to stop taxing him just ‘coz there are no tenants.

I don’t have a lot of sympathy for landlords who moan about paying their taxes, as you can probably tell.

Tell me babeeshka, would you want to swap your life and your cupboard sized bathroom with a housing ACT tenant?

Didn’t think so.

I was given notice to move out of my shared home in O’Connor last year because the landlord said he couldn’t afford to have anyone live there anylonger. It was a old property on a big piece of land and therefore attrracted excessive land tax.

The 1.95 appropriations disguises the fact that with 10% public housing in the ACT those paying reasonable rents for it aren’t managing to support the rest who aren’t therefore its still costs 1.9%. If rents from housing weren’t being funneled back into the system they could be contributing to the schools, hospitals etc that the other 90% are paying for.

Leeches also use hospitals, schools, parks etc to which they are not contributing. They even require the trolley police-in fact may even be more likely to do so. Rather than a small insignificant problem I would say those with a bad attitude hanging off the public tit number in the thousands. They are actually leechion.

I don’t think it unreasonable to have a sense of entitlement that if you work and contribute to society that you will get some benefit for it. So yes, bd84 I would expect that after twenty years of working I do not just get the old housing that Housing discards that costs a lot to maintain and refurbish to pay increasingly higher taxes to put someone who has never worked and never intends to work into new public housing, which yes, she has been “given” effectively for life because her pension is also part of what the taxpayer picks up the bill for.

What is the incentive for young people to work and contribute to society when they are doing without, trying to sacrifice for the future when they see that all they have to do is fall pregnant while still a child and they will be given brand new luxury housing for life? For them, it would be like winning the lottery. If I have to spell the social implications out for you then we are in real trouble.

@Monty OK -what resale value? She will be in there her entire life. It is luxury housing. My friend herself admits to laughing when she got the keys and the first thing her partner did is take a dump in it. But it wasn’t long before she was asking for more. Her general attitude towards Housing is, “how DARE they treat us like this?” Sense of entitlement: OK- I would have thought plans for a large family completely on the public purse would have been enough but I’ll spell it out for you.
1. Entitlement to be supported by society because, “I am breeding the workers of the future.”
2. Entitlement to get moved to better housing because the environment was bad for her kids despite the fact her own partner is selling drugs and helping make it a crappy environment
3. Entitlement to write letters of complaint and threaten to sue Housing for not providing a stair rail on stairs enclosed down the side in said luxury housing
4. Entitlement that housing should fit the bill for a new fence to enclose her pitbulls so she can breed them unliscened. I notice those in private housing in the same group of houses are making do with what they have got
5. Entitlement to blame the school for punishing her child for punching another child, “because what was he meant to do? The kid called him a girl.”
6. Entitlement to threaten to sue school for her son still being violent despite a dedicated teachers aide being assigned to him because, “what the hell were they doing? They are f*** hopless. They’re being payed to look after my son. I’m being discriminated against cos I’m a young mum.”
7. Entitlement to drive drunk with her kids in the car.
8. Entitlement to sit around drinking and taking drugs playing “which genocide?” with her boyfriend. for those of you who don’t know it, it goes like this, “All those f*** people in china. what do we need those for? They should die” (As a result I cannot take her child into an Asian grocery store without his starting to abuse the stor owners)
9. Entitlement for her to use her pension card like a visa. For example, eight free visits to the chiropractor (well free for her, not society). Free vet bills cos the vet feels sorry for her.
10. Entitlement to tell me and a friend who is working two jobs that we better not ever complain about anything in our lives to her because we are lucky

Do I need to go on?

Well she must have come from a difficult background I hear you say? No. Middle class, white, no abuse.

Would you care to guess my background?

On the other side of the ledger I am being forced to sell my home because I can’t afford the taxes anymore. I will miss my beautiful home and my beautiful community and I will grieve for the fact that I have to rip my son from his school where he has made good friends. I don’t think its sensible for the ACT govt to tax people to the point that they are destroying their own revenue base.

I do not have a sense of entitlement. I just want a fair go.

I spent several months last year trying to “shower” under a garden tap pregnant in winter because we were trying to renovate our 1960 cupboard sized bathroom by ourselves while holding down to full-time jobs and looking after a child without any social support. If any bleeding hearts out there in my community who are so fond of the chronically unemployed and single mothers whose condoms keep breaking have genuine compassion and would like to help me out getting my house ready to sell – I would love to hear from you. I have been hit with life circumstance after life circumstance (you know the kind you can’t actually control) and quite frankly I’m not coping all that well

georgesgenitals said :

Don’t you mean shopping trolley police?

Yes! Did someone call?

cleo said :

Sounds like sour grapes to me, SUCK IT UP!

geez, Cleo – tell me you’re baiting everyone again, right???

breda said :

The trouble with public housing as it is currently set up is that it is often a poverty trap. 25% of the income of a long term social security recipient (such as someone on a sole parent pension) is so far removed from the real market price that it is a strong disincentive to leave if it can be avoided.

+1

Exacerbated by a housing affordability crisis.

While we are at it, could we stop government money being spent on regulating mortgages and interfering in the free markets. How about all the money spent on idiots that make a poor life choice and purchase house’s in flood plains. Also handouts to industries drunk on their own importance. How about all the money spent on treating self induced sporting injuries in our hospitals. Our tax’s are supporting a whole lot of self interest groups ripping off the public purse. Enough of the hand outs to the useless and stupid. I deserve to pay less tax and make more money.

Sounds like sour grapes to me, SUCK IT UP!

What a utterly rediculous post. I’m not even sure what you’re complaining about, if it’s because the tenant has been placed in a newish house? that it’s because she’s a single mother with bum of a boyfriend? or that you’re jealous that their house is better than yours?

Old properties cost a lot to maintain or refurbish, Housing progressively sell the old and buy more modern properties. Yes, the new properties will be nicer and have more bathrooms, you will find that a lot of townhouses built in the 90s also have 3 toilets, not just new ones. I believe that Housing’s placement of tenants are based on the needs of the tenants (i.e. size of the house compared to occupancy and location to work/school etc of the teant), not because they look at them and judge them to be a bum who will never get of benefits and therefore don’t like them. If they did that, there would be very few tenants and a lot of people living on park benches.

Quote: “This is not meant to be a general judgement on public housing or those in public housing but to provide a personal specific example of what has occured in the ACT on our watch”

We are on a watch?

Who’s watching right now? When is it my turn? Is there a roster somewhere?

Can I ask for this weekend off? I have already made plans and I honestly didn’t know I was on watch.

The appropriations are only a fraction of what public housing costs ratepayers. The real killer is the opportunity cost. If we own an asset which could be returning $350 a week in rent, but we are only getting $100, that’s $250 a week ($12,500 a year) for a start. Throw in free maintenance, and no rate revenue for that property, and you could safely say $15,000. Then add valuable but run down inner city properties which a private owner would redevelop for a higher return, and it is more still.

In 2003, there were 11,400 public housing units in the ACT, which then represented 9.5% of the housing stock. If the opportunity cost is only $10,000 per unit per year (which is very conservative indeed), that’s $1.14 billion a year in foregone income. On today’s numbers, it would be considerably more.

http://www.dhcs.act.gov.au/__data/assets/word…/AssetManagement.doc

The budget appropriation is the tip of the iceberg.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

Should make them sleep in parks should they?

Who is this “them” of whom you speak?

jsm2090 said :

Of course people have a right to housing, but not at any cost. The system in place needs to be reviewed.

IMHO people who make no effort to make a productive contribution to society should not derive any benefit from the community. I am sick of hearing this nonsense about a hand up, not a hand out when there is blatant abuse in the system. We should just harvest their organs and feed the rest of the carcass to the buzzards.

p1 said :

Erg0 said :

I looked into it, and it turns out that my taxes are all spent on street lighting and public parks. I feel sorry for the people that have had their taxes earmarked for the “bludging housing public tenants” budget.

Best post ever. How do I get my taxes assigned to pothole repair and shopping trolley inspectors?

Don’t you mean shopping trolley police?

shadow boxer said :

That seems to cover the essentials, where does the other 33% go ?

Enjoy, table starts on Page 6

shadow boxer said :

That seems to cover the essentials, where does the other 33% go ?

Hookers and blow.

That seems to cover the essentials, where does the other 33% go ?

breda said :

The traditional right to stay in the residence in perpetuity is another issue. Who can forget the highly paid MLA sitting in an old public house in ritzy Yarralumla, paying a ‘market rent’ based on the age and dilapidation of the house rather than the market value of the land, and legally entitled to continue for ever? She eventually was forced by public opprobrium to move, but there are many like her who recognise that they would be mad to enter the real market when they are on such a good thing, even if they are now paying something approaching a market rent.

That is why although the ACT has one of the (if not the) highest proportions of public housing of any jurisdiction, as well as the highest incomes, so many truly needy people are on waiting lists for years.

No argument with that. Wish there was a reliable statistic though on what proportion of housing is abused in this fashion.

Erg0 said :

I looked into it, and it turns out that my taxes are all spent on street lighting and public parks. I feel sorry for the people that have had their taxes earmarked for the “bludging housing public tenants” budget.

Ditto Erg0.

At 1.9% of 2010-2011 ACT Budget appropriations, housing ain’t the biggest sinkhole for my taxes.

* 23.9% Education and Training
* 14.5% TAMS (Hello streetlights! Hello lawnmowers in the Park!)
* 25.6% Health & Hospitals

Erg0 said :

I looked into it, and it turns out that my taxes are all spent on street lighting and public parks. I feel sorry for the people that have had their taxes earmarked for the “bludging housing public tenants” budget.

Best post ever. How do I get my taxes assigned to pothole repair and shopping trolley inspectors?

@ #7 Yup

The trouble with public housing as it is currently set up is that it is often a poverty trap. 25% of the income of a long term social security recipient (such as someone on a sole parent pension) is so far removed from the real market price that it is a strong disincentive to leave if it can be avoided.

The traditional right to stay in the residence in perpetuity is another issue. Who can forget the highly paid MLA sitting in an old public house in ritzy Yarralumla, paying a ‘market rent’ based on the age and dilapidation of the house rather than the market value of the land, and legally entitled to continue for ever? She eventually was forced by public opprobrium to move, but there are many like her who recognise that they would be mad to enter the real market when they are on such a good thing, even if they are now paying something approaching a market rent.

That is why although the ACT has one of the (if not the) highest proportions of public housing of any jurisdiction, as well as the highest incomes, so many truly needy people are on waiting lists for years.

Pommy bastard said :

You think it’s bad here, you should see the state of play in the UK.

Should make them sleep in parks should they?

What Mothy said.

You think it’s bad here, you should see the state of play in the UK.

Can’t help but want to pull out a lot of the adjectives that the Real Estate agent has put in there;

townhouse
energy efficient
three bedroom, ensuite residence
North facing to the rear
separate living areas
kitchen with stone bench tops
built in robes
master w balcony and ensuite w double size shower
tiling, carpets, double garage with remote door
outdoor area
Walk to schools, shops, transport

Right, so we’ve established that its a townhouse then. And its newish. On that front, can you see the logic in DHCS including in their portfolio of properties under management a range of new and old properties – since doing so means that over the long term the replacement of their available housing stock can be smoothed out, and maintenance costs are kept at a manageable level (assuming newer properties need less maintenance than old)?

On your “three places to go to the toilet” piece, lets just accept that a recently built property is going to have more than one WC in it, and also accept that housing are not custom building “one toilet” properties, just buying (or part funding the construction of) available stock. So that it has resale value, it makes sense to buy what exists.

On the property being “given” to her, please note Tenants of Housing ACT pay either a maximum of 25% of their income in rent, or the market rent, which ever is lower.

On the “sense of entitlement” – please expand on where this comes from, because on the information currently provided, it simply seems you are projecting onto the tenant something you have yourself – you feel entitled to judge how she came to be in the circumstances that qualified her for the housing placement, entitled to decide what is proportional, entitled to pay less tax, and indignant that she, not you, is entitled to multiple locales in which to place her leavings.

I looked into it, and it turns out that my taxes are all spent on street lighting and public parks. I feel sorry for the people that have had their taxes earmarked for the “bludging housing public tenants” budget.

We live in a development in Braddon, and have had to deal with a similar situation where the dregs of society are given free reign of a newish property to take drugs, drink, dump rubbish in communal areas, do burnouts and generally trash the place while deserving DHCS tennants patiently wait in the queue. Of course people have a right to housing, but not at any cost. The system in place needs to be reviewed.

It’s ridiculous, I have a cousin who has got 2 kids with a 19 year old girl, he hasn’t worked in years, and she hasn’t ever worked.

All they do is sit at home taking drugs and drinking, and everything is handed to them. I have family that’s leeching it, so I understand just how bullsh!t it is that they get all this at our expense.

And yeah, they feel they deserve more.