{"id":589,"date":"2019-07-26T15:32:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T15:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=589"},"modified":"2026-10-10T15:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T07:17:07","slug":"punitive-public-housing-tenancies-are-pushing-people-into-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/punitive-public-housing-tenancies-are-pushing-people-into-the-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Punitive\u2019 public housing tenancies are pushing people into the streets – Jesse Noakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One morning earlier this year Sarah Kickett got a surprise phone call from her landlord, the Western Australian Housing Authority. \u201cThey came on a Thursday and did the inspection, and then the next day they rang me up and said they had bad news,\u201d Sarah recalls. \u201c[The woman on the phone] said that I\u2019m evicted, and the only thing they can help me with is a bond for a private rental. I was that angry I think I swore at her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah and her family are Noongar, the traditional custodians of the country Perth now sits on. She lives on the eastern edge of the city in a brick bungalow where she cares for three grandchildren, including a grandson with severe cerebral palsy who requires around the clock care. The children\u2019s mother comes and goes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Aboriginal people represent just 3% of the state\u2019s population, at least one in three homeless people in WA is Aboriginal. And, for many, finding housing doesn\u2019t mark the end of this trouble. Sarah has lived in public housing since she was 18 without any problems. But when she moved to Perth from the wheatbelt six years ago, the housing authority put her on a series of short fixed-term tenancies.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Previously Sarah had always held periodic tenancies, which require a court order to terminate. With fixed-term tenancies, however, Section 72 of the WA Residential Tenancies Act<\/i> allows the landlord to terminate without reason when it expires. There\u2019s no legal recourse, and no appeal. For Sarah, it took one failed inspection from a new housing officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt just came out of nowhere, overnight. She just rang and said we\u2019re out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The campaign for change<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Kate Davis runs community legal centre Tenancy WA and the \u201cMake Renting Fair\u201d campaign which calls on the state government \u2014 currently conducting a full review of the act \u2014 to remove \u201cno grounds terminations\u201d. \u201cAt the end of a fixed-term tenancy you can just give notice and end it, without having to give any reasons at all. They deliberately use it as a mechanism to ensure that the decision can be made by the housing authority rather than the court.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Tasmanian Supreme Court<\/span> blocked the eviction<\/a><\/span> of a fixed-term tenant in a landmark ruling. The difference is that the equivalent Tasmanian legislation has a clause requiring the reason for termination be \u201cgenuine or just\u201d. The WA act has no such provision for fixed-term tenancies \u2014 if the paperwork is in order, that\u2019s that.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The WA Department of Communities, which the housing authority has fallen under since a 2017 amalgamation, says fixed-term tenancies are used for those with an \u201cunsatisfactory tenancy history\u201d. Assistant director general Jackie Tang says they \u201calso allow the department to monitor tenancy performance and compliance in the early stage of the tenancy and identify risk factors\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The housing authority told me it doesn\u2019t record the number of families made homeless each year via fixed-term tenancies, or the number of Aboriginal households. A report<\/a> by the WA Auditor General in December 2018 criticised the department\u2019s reporting of housing data and called for it to \u201ccollect and centrally store comprehensive tenant information\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The housing authority has revealed to Crikey<\/em> that 562 public housing tenancies were ended via legal action in WA last year, down from 680 in 2016\/17. In the same period, Victoria had 275 total evictions from public housing, in a state with more than double WA\u2019s population.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerry Georgatos, a WA-based social researcher who coordinates the National Trauma Recovery Project, was shocked by the numbers the housing authority gave Crikey<\/em> – the first figures released for several years. \u201cThe eviction rates are abominable; they\u2019re reprehensible. There\u2019s no possibility that there\u2019s less than 1000 kids being evicted to homelessness each year. It\u2019s a disgrace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Housing Minister Peter Tinley insists that \u201cthe non-renewal of a fixed-term tenancy does not equate to eviction\u201d, and notes that any tenant who experiences eviction or non-renewal of a tenancy can reapply for public housing (there are currently almost 14,000 households on the waitlist). \u201cThe last thing that we want as a society is to see people without a roof over their heads,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Facing the effects<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Kate Davis says the consequences for children are especially severe. \u201cIt\u2019s basically setting those kids on a fast-track to prison. It\u2019s pretty hard to access education, health, safety, decent food, if you\u2019re sleeping in a car or on the streets or in a really overcrowded house with family.\u201d Aboriginal young people are 50 times<\/span> more likely to be in detention<\/span><\/a> in WA than non-Indigenous kids.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jennifer Kaeshagen runs the First Nations Homelessness Project, providing support to Aboriginal families about to lose their public housing. She says she\u2019s been in meetings where WA Housing Authority managers have explicitly use fixed-term tenancies as a bargaining chip. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHousing will do this thing if a tenancy gets in trouble where they\u2019ll go \u2018Well, OK, if you agree to go on a fixed-term tenancy then we won\u2019t take these particular matters to court.\u2019 A lot of people \u2026 sign onto the fixed-term probably not understanding the implications of that. They\u2019re signing up for a short-term stay of execution, but Housing don\u2019t put it that way, and they definitely don\u2019t explain the process in terms of recourse to a court process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Davis agrees that tenants aren\u2019t made aware of the statutory distinction between fixed-term and periodic tenancies. \u201cWe\u2019ve certainly seen some examples of people who\u2019ve afterwards said they didn\u2019t understand the detail of what they were signing up for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kaeshagen says the housing authority fails to appreciate the hardships her clients face. \u201cMy view of Housing is that they think that a punitive approach is effective. It doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI do think fixed-term tenancies are fundamentally unethical, because we\u2019re offering them to the most vulnerable people in Perth, with statistically vastly more problems \u2014 mental health, employment, historical trauma \u2014 and these issues far and away impact Aboriginal tenants the most.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah Kickett was fortunate. Kaeshagen and other advocates lobbied the housing authority to reconsider while First Nations Homelessness Project volunteers blitzed Sarah\u2019s place before a repeat inspection, and the decision to terminate was overturned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not everyone has these resources. Another Noongar tenant, Jenny, whose name has been changed, received a letter from the housing authority in January announcing the termination of her fixed-term tenancy. \u201cI don\u2019t know why they evicted me; they didn\u2019t explain to me why. I didn\u2019t bother going back to court because what\u2019s the point? I didn\u2019t know what to do at the time because there was too much pressure. I still don\u2019t know nothing now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesman for Minister Tinley \u201ccategorically rejected\u201d Jenny\u2019s statement that she was given no reason for the decision to terminate her tenancy and no opportunity to avoid it. \u201cIn at least two of her numerous public housing tenancies \u2014 including the most recent \u2014 she actually consented to the court orders terminating the tenancies,\u201d they said. \u201cNobody likes to see people evicted and it is always the option of last resort for the Department of Communities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jenny maintains that the letter announcing she was out was the first she knew of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since her son took his life five years ago, Jenny had been caring for his children while battling depression and anxiety. \u201cWe all went our separate ways since the eviction, I haven\u2019t seen my grannies for weeks.\u201d The kids have gone to family in Karratha, two days\u2019 drive north, while she bounces from couch to couch in Perth. \u201cThis is the first time we\u2019ve ever been separated like this. I think it is unfair.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jess<\/span>e Noakes <\/span><\/strong>26\/06\/2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The post <\/span>\u2018<\/span>Punitive\u2019 public housing tenancies are pushing people into the streets<\/span><\/a> <\/sub>appeared first on<\/span> Crikey<\/a>.<\/span><\/sub><\/span><\/p>\n

Feature-image: <\/span>Koort Boodja | New transitional accommodation program for Perth<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Related<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Cost of homelessness: Governments will save money by spending on accommodation services, study finds<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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  One morning earlier this year Sarah Kickett got a surprise phone call from her landlord, the Western Australian Housing Authority. \u201cThey came on a Thursday and did the inspection, and then the next day they rang me up and said they had bad news,\u201d Sarah recalls. \u201c[The woman on the phone] said that I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,12,392],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australias-move-to-the-right","category-indigenous-affairs","category-racism","tag-aboriginal-kids-made-homeless"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t